You anti-smokers out there will be hip, hip, hurraying the new Belmont, CA city ordinance that will outlaw smoking EVERYWHERE except in the privacy of a single-family detached residence — but I’m sure that in time the long-arm-of-the-Belmont-law will encroach on that last bastion of smokers’ rights, too. So what say you? Why should I give a good you-know-what about those disgusting, filthy cigarette and cigar smokers? They’re killin’ themselves, and according to the guvment, their killin’ me too. Well — IT WOULDN’T BE THE FIRST TIME THAT THE GUVMENT TOLD A LITTLE WHITE ONE! And, it won’t be the last.

Actually, like with Global Warming, there is such strong political pressure from within the scientific community to squelch any dissent in the matter of the boogy-boo known as second hand smoke, that those researchers and scientists that are seeing data that does not support the anti-smoking lobby scare tactics can’t get their views widely distributed so that we, the affected public, can make an informed decision. The scare mongers have pretty much won this argument, leading to actions like that above — Outlawing the use of a legal product city wide! Consider this from Jacob Sullum, a senior editor at Reason magazine and Townhall Columnist:

As the [government's] report itself makes clear, there is no evidence that brief, transient exposure to secondhand smoke has any effect on your chance of developing heart disease or lung cancer. The studies that link secondhand smoke to these illnesses involve intense, long-term exposure, typically among people who have lived with smokers for decades.

Even in these studies, it’s difficult to demonstrate an effect, precisely because the doses of toxins and carcinogens bystanders passively absorb are much smaller than the doses absorbed by smokers, probably amounting to a fraction of a cigarette a day. Not surprisingly, the epidemiological studies cited by the surgeon general’s report find that the increases in lung cancer and heart disease risks associated with long-term exposure to secondhand smoke are small, on the order of 20 to 30 percent. Among smokers, by contrast, the risk of heart disease is between 100 and 300 percent higher, while the risk of lung cancer is about 900 percent higher.

Because the associations found in the secondhand smoke studies are so weak, it’s impossible to rule out alternative explanations, such as unreported smoking or other lifestyle variables that independently raise disease risks. Although the surgeon general’s report concludes such factors are unlikely to entirely account for the observed associations, the truth is we don’t know for sure and probably never well, given the limitations of epidemiology and the difficulty of measuring low-level risks.

Reasonable people can disagree about the meaning of these ambiguous data, and it’s not surprising that supporters of smoking bans like Carmona are inclined to see a clear causal relationship, while opponents (like me) are inclined to be more skeptical. But there is no excuse for the kind of scare mongering in which Carmona engaged when he implied that you could drop dead from the slightest whiff of tobacco smoke.

But, each and every time one of these communities comes up with a call to ban all smoking, guess which statement they drag out to support their draconian efforts? Yep, ya got that right!

How many packs a day ya smokin’ there Okie? Uh, why none. Never was a cigarette smoker — but I do thoroughly enjoy a fine cigar 4-5 times a year — fine cigars cost big bucks! My wife is a life-long smoker, so if second hand smoke is gonna take someone out, it should be me. Although my cholesterol has been historically high, according to the last three cardiolite scans my heart arteries are clear. My blood pressure is good, although I do take BP meds because of my swollen aortic root (birth defect), and my lung capacity is fine. Damn that second hand smoke that I’ve been constantly exposed to for the last 18 years — maybe in another 3-4-5 decades it’s a gonna kill me. Somethin’ will, that’s for damn good and sure — Cause NONE of us gets out of here alive. No matter how many smoking bans are passed, how little red meat you eat, how many miles you jog. You can keep yourself in tip-top shape, deny yourself any and all vice-like pleasures, and still drop dead at a very young age.Michael Ventura, newspaper columnist and self-confessed smoker, offers this recollection on an inconvenient reality of life:

We forget the lesson a crusty old coot once told me: “You’re born with a hand grenade up your ass. And you never know when or why it’ll blow.”

So, we never know when our personal hand grenade is gonna blow. All we really know is the inevitability of DEATH & TAXES! And you thought that America was the “Land of the FREE” . . . Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em! — If’n they’ll let ya. (db)

Technorati Tags: Belmont, CA Smoking Ban, Second Hand Smoke

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 10:06 am and is filed under Fever Swamp Madness, Lefty Nutters, Nutty CA Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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