It was a pleasure to see Brill's Content take the important step of publishing an article that begins to reveal the depth of misinformation and scientific sophistry regarding the perceived risks of secondhand tobacco smoke.
The distortion of scientific evidence, compounded by the scientific ignorance of journalists and policy makers, has resulted in health policies that are based on politics and emotion rather than science and reason. The great secondhand-smoke scam is a case in point.
[Writer] Nicholas Varchaver focuses on the July 17, 1998, decision of federal Judge William Osteen, who threw out the EPA's 1993 report finding that secondhand smoke was a carcinogen. It is sad that it took a federal judge to accomplish what hundreds of scientists and statisticians have tried to do in the five years following the EPA's report. Had reporters taken the time to find and speak with unbiased sources who took exception to the report, this country could have saved hundreds of millions of dollars spent in unnecessary and useless programs to limit secondhand smoke.
Anne Fennell
Austin, TX
(via e-mail)
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