Joined Feb 2004
3K Posts | 42+
159 Knobvue Drive Freedom Pa 15042
Issue One: Secondhand smoke
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Show me the data
Your June 29 article "Public Smoke Ban Sought: Surgeon General's Report Sparks Push for Statewide Curbs" points out accurately that a new federal report says "secondhand smoke kills an estimated 50,000 people annually," calling the evidence "indisputable."
The surgeon general's efforts against tobacco can be applauded but are based on no scientific foundation. The largest study to date, "Multicenter Case-Control Study of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Lung Cancer in Europe" (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 90, No. 14, 1998), failed to find any significant lung cancer in those exposed to environmental tobacco smoke either as children or adults living with a smoker.
Another example of anti-tobacco misinformation is the landmark 1993 report in which the Environmental Protection Agency declared that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a dangerous carcinogen that kills 3,000 Americans yearly.
Five years later, in July 1998, federal judge William L. Osteen lambasted the EPA for "cherry picking" the data, excluding studies that "demonstrated no association between ETS and cancer" and withholding "significant portions of its findings and reasoning in striving to confirm its a priori hypothesis." Both "the record and EPA's explanation," concluded the court, "make it clear that using standard methodology, EPA could not produce statistically significant results."
As a physician, I am a firm believer that tobacco use can lead to many diseases. Using any tobacco product is an adult decision. Those who use tobacco need correct risk information.
As a citizen, I expect our government to base legislation on firm foundations. The best major studies fail to prove a causal relationship of secondhand tobacco smoke to cancer. That evidence is clear to me or any student of the secondhand tobacco smoke field. I would've hoped that our surgeon general was more informed.
MARC J. SCHNEIDERMAN, M.D.
Moon
Marc is a friend & fellow Burghherfer , consumer of Single malt scotch, coffee & a visitor to the Qtr.Deck , other than that he is a fairly sane person & why he hangs out with the rest of us is beyond my comprehension.
So tell the smoke Natzis there data is flawed , I plan on sending this letter to the Surgeon General , just one more LIE from BIG BROTHER & the Federal Government .
In a recient magazine artical I saw a story that 70% of all chefs are cigar smokers & 2% smoke cigeretts also , as a life long chef & cigar smoker ( both over 50 years ) I had more ill effects from over eating than I ever did from Cigar smoking , I wonder how BIG I would have been had it not been for the cigars, just think If I were eating all the time I spent smoking, dammmmmm I would be dead by now for sure, so in a way CIGAR SMOKING SAVED MY LIFE !!! now EPA, put that in your pipe & smoke it ! hahaha Enjoy, Vince
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Show me the data
Your June 29 article "Public Smoke Ban Sought: Surgeon General's Report Sparks Push for Statewide Curbs" points out accurately that a new federal report says "secondhand smoke kills an estimated 50,000 people annually," calling the evidence "indisputable."
The surgeon general's efforts against tobacco can be applauded but are based on no scientific foundation. The largest study to date, "Multicenter Case-Control Study of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Lung Cancer in Europe" (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 90, No. 14, 1998), failed to find any significant lung cancer in those exposed to environmental tobacco smoke either as children or adults living with a smoker.
Another example of anti-tobacco misinformation is the landmark 1993 report in which the Environmental Protection Agency declared that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a dangerous carcinogen that kills 3,000 Americans yearly.
Five years later, in July 1998, federal judge William L. Osteen lambasted the EPA for "cherry picking" the data, excluding studies that "demonstrated no association between ETS and cancer" and withholding "significant portions of its findings and reasoning in striving to confirm its a priori hypothesis." Both "the record and EPA's explanation," concluded the court, "make it clear that using standard methodology, EPA could not produce statistically significant results."
As a physician, I am a firm believer that tobacco use can lead to many diseases. Using any tobacco product is an adult decision. Those who use tobacco need correct risk information.
As a citizen, I expect our government to base legislation on firm foundations. The best major studies fail to prove a causal relationship of secondhand tobacco smoke to cancer. That evidence is clear to me or any student of the secondhand tobacco smoke field. I would've hoped that our surgeon general was more informed.
MARC J. SCHNEIDERMAN, M.D.
Moon
Marc is a friend & fellow Burghherfer , consumer of Single malt scotch, coffee & a visitor to the Qtr.Deck , other than that he is a fairly sane person & why he hangs out with the rest of us is beyond my comprehension.
So tell the smoke Natzis there data is flawed , I plan on sending this letter to the Surgeon General , just one more LIE from BIG BROTHER & the Federal Government .
In a recient magazine artical I saw a story that 70% of all chefs are cigar smokers & 2% smoke cigeretts also , as a life long chef & cigar smoker ( both over 50 years ) I had more ill effects from over eating than I ever did from Cigar smoking , I wonder how BIG I would have been had it not been for the cigars, just think If I were eating all the time I spent smoking, dammmmmm I would be dead by now for sure, so in a way CIGAR SMOKING SAVED MY LIFE !!! now EPA, put that in your pipe & smoke it ! hahaha Enjoy, Vince
