Statistics have showen that people who are "regularly
exposed to cigarette smoke in social situations" have
a "significantly increased risk of lung disease", which
is assessed at about 50%. These diseases do not include
lung cancer; what they are referring to is bronchitis,
emphysema, or even "respiratory congestion".
Also, the period of exposure that they mention seems to be
extremely high. The main concern with second-hand smoke
is for people who already have, or are predisposed to
respiratory illness.
Another fact that was interesting: The annual costs of
smoking (health costs and lost productivity)
exceed $100 billion in the United States alone.
Enough.
If these
figures don't
scream it at you, here's a
brief explanation. More than any of the other
inflated estimates and
twisted factoids, the second-hand smoke
argument is really without
base. This
information also does not
consider the other "
poor living
choices" that the people who
spend 5h every
day sitting in someone else's smoke
clouds are making; people who have
asthma should know better too.
(This is addressed at Why I hate smokers.)
Some
research on the
impact on the respiratory
system of
smog and
city pollution showed the
increased
risk of lung disease to be
comparable to and even
greater than that of "second hand smoke". The
idea looks even more
ridiculous when you see that all of the "increased risks" for the other
warnings are based on a
lifetime of
heavy smoking. (For the
real reason behind all this
propaganda, see the last
fact in the <pre>
above.
If you drive a car, you are polluting my air.
If you use electricity, you are likely making use of a plant that burns fossil fuels, and polluting my air.
If you buy mass produced goods, you are making use of factories that are polluting my air.
This
list could go on and on.
I'm no evironmentalist, but until you've fixed those behaviours that are fucking up my air quality, don't come bitching about the ยตgrams of my exhaled smoke you're breathing in.