by Mario Donatelli

Created on: January 15, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

I'll be the first to admit it: I was duped too. I am, like most Americans, a victim of the deceitful rhetoric of the anti-smoking lobby. I've always supported the right to smoke, and I've always supported the right of private businesses to decide for themselves whether or not to allow smoking in their venue. But there is one thing I have never disagreed with, the "fact" that second-hand smoke is dangerous. Like most, I assumed it to be true. After all, the so-called experts tell us it's a fact; they say second-hand smoke is a health hazard and a deadly carcinogen. It wasn't until I researched the claim firsthand that I discovered the stunning truth: second-hand smoke, formally known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is completely harmless. I was even more baffled to find that there exist scientific studies, done by such reputable organizations as the American Cancer Society and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, that conclude ETS can actually be a health benefit in certain circumstances.

In 1998 the World Health Organization (WHO) completed a large, multinational study to determine if there is a link between ETS and lung cancer. The results, much to the dismay of the WHO, concluded that there is no statistically significant risk association for "spousal and workplace ETS" and lung cancer. Amazingly, the study also resolved that ETS exposure in children lowered the risk of developing lung cancer by 22 percent. Let me say that again: the WHO found that second-hand smoke exposure decreases the risk of children developing lung cancer by 22 percent. Shocking? It's just the beginning.

Because the outcome of the study contradicted the WHO's public stance on tobacco usage, the organization hastily buried the study from public spotlight by not officially releasing it. It was eventually leaked and publicized by the British Wall Street Journal, causing widespread criticism of the WHO. This prompted the WHO to frantically initiate damage control, issuing a press release that stated, "...[from the evidence in the WHO study and other studies] emerges a clear global scientific consensus passive smoking does cause lung cancer and other diseases." The WHO press release utterly contradicted the findings of their own study on ETS by including an outright, unequivocal lie. The truth is there is no global scientific consensus that passive smoking causes any disease, let alone lung cancer. The global scientific consensus, and the results of the WHO's own study, says

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