Secondhand Smoke Not as Bad as They Claim...

[pappymac]

If this isn't the right place, the admins will move it.
Just read an interesting article on Slate (of all places) saying that all the anti-smoking bans are based on bad science.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2017/02/secondhand_smoke_isn_t_as_bad_as_we_thought.html
Edited by Cosmic: Please check forum rule #9 concerning title capitalization

 

[daveinlax]

If your an outside only smoker I'd take that article to your wife and see if that gets you a pass in from the cold.
Seriously, I worked in smoke filled bars and restaurants when I was a kid and I can tell you first hand that second hand smoke is toxic. Anyone who been in the smoking tent in Chicago will know what I mean. 8O

 

[plugugly]

If we are to criminalize the behavior of others, why don't we make sick people wear a mask when they cough and ban women's perfume (a known allergen to some) and their hair spray (that can't be good to breath second hand) and the ghastly plastic and glue vapor that some gullible people admiringly call "That New Car Smell"? None of that is happening - but it is to smokers and the why has a simple answer. Medical care for old cigarette smokers and lost productivity (and insurance premiums) for younger smokers costs businesses money. Stop smoking and you reduce costs. How to do it? Fund some bad science then buy a few congressmen ($100,00 to $200,00 per election - a very cheap price) and lean on the media who need your advertising dollars to get on board with the big lie to stir up the public and some moralistic temperance organizations and - voila! There's your next "popular social movement to ban ... whatever ... neatly tied up, packaged and with a nice pretty bow on top.
Plugugly

 

[pipebuddy]

Of course it's based on bad science! Air pollution, water pollution, GMO foods and the numerous carcinogen additives used by the food industry cause much more harm than tobacco!

The tobacco folly is but a huge smokescreen aiming at hiding something more sinister.

 

[olkofri]

Science has been politicised for a long time; so much so that it's now failing to convince us of the veracity of what is claimed.

 

[lazar]

Go stand in an airport smoking lounge for a few minutes and see how your lungs feel. Then come back and tell us how secondhand smoke is harmless. It's all a matter of degree, and extreme claims on both sides.

 

[saltedplug]

The smoking car on the Rock Island trains in Chicago were formidable, 50-75 people smoking at once

 

[mothernaturewilleatusallforbreakfast]

Smoking bans are bullshit! There was a local bar here in my hometown that was an institution and made the decision to relocate. They restored a beautiful old and dilapidated building in town, and invested $25,000 in a state of the art ventilation system. Everyone in town made the move with them and began to enjoy the new space. It was great. You could smoke and drink and everyone enjoyed themselves. You could leave the place without hardly smelling of smoke. Then the smoking ban hit just months later. The bars business dropped significantly and it now struggles to make ends meet with a ventilation system that goes practically unused. It's a privately owned business that invested in the well being of all it's patrons, smokers and non-smokers, that has since been regulated to near non-existence by a state government smoking ban. Second hand smoke is not harmless, but the effects can be minimized and the freedom of business owners and individual citizens to chose how they live and/or do business should not be controlled by government on the basis of propogated bologna. Thanks for sharing the article, but I doubt we'll see the day when bans begin to be lifted. Although, I hope we do.

 

[pipebuddy]

Go stand in an airport smoking lounge for a few minutes and see how your lungs feel. Then come back and tell us how secondhand smoke is harmless. It's all a matter of degree, and extreme claims on both sides.

I went into more than one for over an hour at a time. My lungs have been juuuuuuust fine.

But do consider that your example might be an extreme case; as people are piled up like sardines in those very small spaces and the ventilation systems, not so great.

An anecdote: I had to walk a few hundred yards from an hospital parking lot to the entrance. There were so many cars going in and out on the premises that I was sick to my stomach by the time I walked in the building. But hey, you can't smoke on the hospital premises because it's harmful.

 

[perdurabo]

I love the dumbasses that sleuth around claiiming their experience with second hand smoke. I grew up with parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles that smoked. I started smoking cigarettes and quit after about 8 years. 6 or 7 years went by and I started smoking a pipe because I can. I've never had asthma or breathing problems. Yes, if you're asthmatic you will be affected by cigarette/cigar/pipe smoke. You are also susceptible to seasonal allergies and also have issues around animals. So keep the bullshit in the bullshit container about second hand smoke. Sorry to be rude, but the pseudo science flavor of the week is boring. Old and played out. It's like Climate Change. Crap. Inhaling anything but air into your lungs is bad. The second hand smoke scare defies physics. It's all dust.

 

[perdurabo]

Pappy, your thread will likely be shut down because I believe Deathmetal posted it last year. Plus assholes like me. :rofl:

 

[warren]

I love these disjointed threads! All the anecdotal evidence. Bars may be privately owned but, I bet the one cited is licensed and subject to various state and municipal regulations and laws. When one chooses to go into a business which is severely government regulated ... well, you picked your dance partner and you're not going to get to lead, you follow.

 

[perdurabo]

Warren, you missed one thing. Government can't ban a legal substance. Government has to pass a law to prohibit it, at the Federal level. This is a republic, it's called Federalism. There is no such thing as nullification in our separated system.

 

[perdurabo]

That wasn't an attack Warren, it was a spring board. You are right, pick your bed fellows.

 

[perdurabo]

On top of all of this..,if you want tobacco or any other substance to be left alone, or for subastances to be a states rights issue. Abolish the FDA. Otherwise we are all beating drums to deaf ears.

 

[brian64]

Ah yes...one must definitely choose their dance partner carefully no doubt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gzqCnyI2fU

 

[lazar]

I'm guessing I'm the "dumbass" you're referring to, @perdurabo, but you're the climate changes denier who wants to dismantle the FDA? You must be a very stable genius to know better than 97% of the world's scientists, and to believe that there is no need for regulation of standards in our food and drugs. :crazy:
(Cue calls to shut down the thread, and mod intervention).

 

[perdurabo]

Actually the "dumbass" was a blanket statement. Probably shouldn't have used it. Sorry if any were offended. To say 97% of scientist agree that man causes any change in climate is absurd. It's a fallacy to think that climate on Earth is a stable phenomenon. It's not. A little fifth grade science debunks man made climate change. And no, I do not think that we need standards as far a drugs and food from an agency that has no grounds to exist legally. An agency that creates law and regulation outside of the law is tyranny. Also calling for threads to be shut down because you are uncomfortable with the thin line of tobacco regulation and politics is a little strange. I think as long as we don't talk political party, favorite candidate, etc all should be well. But it's Kevin's house and he or any mod can do what needs to be done with threads.
These are philosophical debates against ideologies. Ideaologies such as the fake science behind second hand smoke and the ideological application of telling others what to do with their property(cigarettes/cigars/pipes/tobacco).

 

[zack24]

...and we were doing so good!....but this is going to rapidly turn into a bunch of monkeys flinging poo from the trees within about two more posts, so we're done...