Chicago Sun-Times - News
Case against secondhand smoke vanishes into thin air
October 22, 2005
BY DENNIS CONSTANT
Despite the claims of anti-smoking groups that research studies have conclusively proved that secondhand tobacco smoke causes lung cancer, the city councils of Arlington Heights, Evanston and Wheeling rejected smoking bans. The three Illinois municipalities have created significant restaurant industries that play an important role in their economies, and the council members concluded that the risks of loss of businesses were not worth the health benefits that some claimed would result from a ban on smoking.
Now the Chicago City Council is considering banning smoking in virtually all restaurants, bars and commercial buildings.
Anti-smoking groups with a collectivist political agenda, allied with “cancer industry” organizations that rely on fear to enhance their considerable cash flow, have filled the media with claims about secondhand tobacco smoke that are questionable at best, and fraudulent at worst. It’s important to look past their shrill propaganda and examine their claims without bias.
The keystone of their argument for banning indoor smoking is that exposure to “secondhand” smoke is a serious health hazard that causes lung cancer. To hear them tell it, there simply is no debate: Studies conclusively have shown a causal connection between lung cancer and secondhand tobacco smoke. In fact, the research studies tell a different story — a story that largely has been ignored by the media.
A study often cited by anti-smoking groups is the 1993 study by Michael Siegel, “Involuntary Smoking in the Restaurant Workplace,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which declared that non-smoking restaurant workers have a 50 percent higher risk of lung cancer than the general population. However, a peer review of the study completed in 2000, authored by Martha Perske, revealed that the claimed 50 percent increased risk was based on six studies that had absolutely nothing to do with secondhand smoke in restaurants, bars, or anywhere else.
Small increased risks for lung cancer were found in food service workers, but there was no evidence in any of the six studies that food service workers had been exposed to tobacco smoke!
According to Michael Fumento, writing in Health Care News, in 2003 professors James Enstrom of UCLA and Geoffrey Kabat of the State University of New York reported in the British Medical Journal that their 39-year study of 35,561 Californians who had never smoked showed no causal relationship between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco-related mortality.
Fumento also reports that in 1999, an Environmental Health Perspectives survey of 17 studies of environmental tobacco smoke and heart disease found only five that were statistically significantly positive. And in 2002, an analysis of 48 studies of environmental tobacco smoke found only 10 studies that were significantly positive, one that was significantly negative, and 37 that were not significant in either direction.
Fumento adds that in 1975, when many more individuals smoked in restaurants, cocktail lounges and transportation lounges, the concentration of tobacco smoke then was equivalent to 0.004 cigarettes an hour — a very small amount.
Despite the claim of anti-smoking groups that scientific studies unanimously have shown that secondhand smoke is killing thousands from lung cancer, the truth is that the vast majority of such studies failed to find any statistically significant link.
The arguments of anti-smokers are sometimes ludicrous. They claim that smoke contains 4,000 poisons and carcinogens, but a 2005 California EPA analysis found only 405. Not only that, the average American diet contains about 10,000 poisons and carcinogens. Perhaps Chicago should ban food instead of tobacco.
Dennis Constant is director of research for the Chicago-based Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation.
Case against secondhand smoke vanishes into thin air
October 22, 2005
BY DENNIS CONSTANT
Despite the claims of anti-smoking groups that research studies have conclusively proved that secondhand tobacco smoke causes lung cancer, the city councils of Arlington Heights, Evanston and Wheeling rejected smoking bans. The three Illinois municipalities have created significant restaurant industries that play an important role in their economies, and the council members concluded that the risks of loss of businesses were not worth the health benefits that some claimed would result from a ban on smoking.
Now the Chicago City Council is considering banning smoking in virtually all restaurants, bars and commercial buildings.
Anti-smoking groups with a collectivist political agenda, allied with “cancer industry” organizations that rely on fear to enhance their considerable cash flow, have filled the media with claims about secondhand tobacco smoke that are questionable at best, and fraudulent at worst. It’s important to look past their shrill propaganda and examine their claims without bias.
The keystone of their argument for banning indoor smoking is that exposure to “secondhand” smoke is a serious health hazard that causes lung cancer. To hear them tell it, there simply is no debate: Studies conclusively have shown a causal connection between lung cancer and secondhand tobacco smoke. In fact, the research studies tell a different story — a story that largely has been ignored by the media.
A study often cited by anti-smoking groups is the 1993 study by Michael Siegel, “Involuntary Smoking in the Restaurant Workplace,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which declared that non-smoking restaurant workers have a 50 percent higher risk of lung cancer than the general population. However, a peer review of the study completed in 2000, authored by Martha Perske, revealed that the claimed 50 percent increased risk was based on six studies that had absolutely nothing to do with secondhand smoke in restaurants, bars, or anywhere else.
Small increased risks for lung cancer were found in food service workers, but there was no evidence in any of the six studies that food service workers had been exposed to tobacco smoke!
According to Michael Fumento, writing in Health Care News, in 2003 professors James Enstrom of UCLA and Geoffrey Kabat of the State University of New York reported in the British Medical Journal that their 39-year study of 35,561 Californians who had never smoked showed no causal relationship between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco-related mortality.
Fumento also reports that in 1999, an Environmental Health Perspectives survey of 17 studies of environmental tobacco smoke and heart disease found only five that were statistically significantly positive. And in 2002, an analysis of 48 studies of environmental tobacco smoke found only 10 studies that were significantly positive, one that was significantly negative, and 37 that were not significant in either direction.
Fumento adds that in 1975, when many more individuals smoked in restaurants, cocktail lounges and transportation lounges, the concentration of tobacco smoke then was equivalent to 0.004 cigarettes an hour — a very small amount.
Despite the claim of anti-smoking groups that scientific studies unanimously have shown that secondhand smoke is killing thousands from lung cancer, the truth is that the vast majority of such studies failed to find any statistically significant link.
The arguments of anti-smokers are sometimes ludicrous. They claim that smoke contains 4,000 poisons and carcinogens, but a 2005 California EPA analysis found only 405. Not only that, the average American diet contains about 10,000 poisons and carcinogens. Perhaps Chicago should ban food instead of tobacco.
Dennis Constant is director of research for the Chicago-based Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation.
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