Letter: Crusade against smoking goes too far

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

I'm sick and tired of columnists like DeWayne Wickham attempting to scare us by using lies - or at least distortions - regarding smoking and, especially, secondhand smoke. In his commentary printed in the Las Vegas Sun on July 2, he frequently quotes - or, rather, misquotes - Surgeon General Richard Carmona.

Even the learned Carmona plays loose with his conclusions from studies found in JAMA. The erroneous statements, which are then reported inexactly and incorrectly by writers like Wickham, cause, at a minimum, stress to even nonsmoking readers.

One fine example quotes Carmona as saying, "There is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure." Wickham then quotes the surgeon general as saying, "There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke." The real coup is that neither statement is accurate! As pointed out by the senior editor at Reason magazine, Jacob Sullum, the JAMA "report itself makes clear there is no evidence that brief, transient exposure to secondhand smoke has any effect on your chance of developing heart disease or lung cancer."

Now as to the stupid statistic that's tossed around by folks like Wickham, that tobacco caused 435,000 deaths in 2000 ("leading cause of death in 2000"). Ask your doctor, a coroner or mortician how many times they have seen "tobacco" as the "cause" of death on the certificate. How about either none or almost none, period.

How democratic is it to deny a pleasure to a group of Americans whose number exceeded those who elected President Bush? Especially hurtful are the recently enforced bans on smoking in the workplace, on public beaches, and the latest insane idea that it should be banned in cars while transporting children. Next should we jail parents who allow their kids to use ketchup because of its high sugar content (thereby possibly affecting their health)?

James J. Bradach, Las Vegas