Secondhand Smokescreen

Anti-Smoking Forces Dealt Blow

The Salt Lake Tribune -- Study Finds Secondhand Smoke Doesn't Up Cancer Risk

Enstrom and Kabat focused their work on 35,561 people who had never smoked but had spouses who did. The scientists reviewed the histories of the participants from 1960 to 1998 and found no significant increase in their death rate for coronary heart disease, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

But the study contradicted the conclusions of a variety of studies over the years. The World Health Organization and other health agencies have concluded that second-hand smoke carries heightened risk for such diseases, on the order of a 20 percent increased risk for lung cancer and a 30 percent increase for heart disease. The American Cancer Society and several scientists said the study was flawed in several ways. For instance, the study only examined 10 percent of the people originally enrolled in the American Cancer Society study. Additionally, in the early years of the study, people were exposed to secondhand smoke in many other places than the home, such as movie theaters, restaurants and the workplace. This would have the effect of dwarfing the effects of secondhand smoke in the home.

See also Secondhand Smokescreen from JunkScience.com via FoxNews.com

Just when it seemed anti-smoking activists finally succeeded in producing scientific reports establishing secondhand smoke as a health risk, a federal judge overturned the EPA report in 1998. He ruled the EPA cheated on the science.

Later in 1998, the WHO published the largest study ever done on secondhand smoke and lung cancer. The study reported no statistically significant association between secondhand smoke and lung cancer. Oops.

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