To date, there is not one single study anywhere that offers conclusive proof that breathing secondhand smoke causes cancer. The U.S. surgeon general, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association all claim that secondhand smoke is a killer, but they base their claims on the infamous 1993 Environmental Protection Agency study that was thrown out in a 1998 U.S. District Court decision because “the EPA ignored data that contradicted their pre-determined conclusion.� Further, “the study showed no link between secondhand smoke and cancer.�

The World Health Organization study released in 1998 further backed this with the following findings: “Results indicate no association between childhood exposure (to secondhand smoke) and lung cancer,� and that for adults, “the increased risk of lung cancer from secondhand smoke was not statistically significant.�

Based on the numbers from the EPA study, which were later found to be biased towards the non-smoking movement, of those exposed to secondhand smoke, 12.5 in 1 million will die from lung cancer. Of those not exposed to secondhand smoke, 10 in 1 million will die from lung cancer. That’s a difference of 2.5 people per 1 million, and it comes from statistics that were deemed to be “cherry-picked� by the EPA for their study.

I’ll be the first to admit that secondhand smoke is annoying, but so is cheap perfume and bad body odor. Are we going to ban those next?

— Chris Bower, Ventura