Shaunti Feldhahn: Secondhand smoke vs. other hazards of life

Should smoking be prohibited in public places? Absolutely, writes right-leaning Shaunti Feldhahn; there are larger issues more worthy of our attention, counters left-leaning Diane Glass.

Imagine the following scenario: There's a new product called "tobacco" that some people enjoy smoking, and government officials are considering whether and how to approve its use. It has proved harmful to users, so some want to ban it entirely. But free choice wins the day — if people want to ruin their own health, so be it — so the officials then discuss restrictions.

In our fictional scenario, proponents admit that tobacco harms bystanders who unintentionally inhale smoke secondhand. In fact, studies show (as they do in real life) that while smoking is linked to lung cancer and heart disease, even inhaling others' smoke increases lung cancer and heart disease risk by 20 percent to 30 percent. And 15 times more "smoking bystanders" die from heart disease-related deaths than those who die from lung cancer itself. Also, studies show that secondhand smoke exposure in young women increases breast cancer risk by between 68 percent and 120 percent, demonstrate that it's especially dangerous for children, and prove that air-ventilation technology doesn't eliminate exposure.

After about five minutes with this data, our hypothetical officials rapidly place strict restrictions on this new product. Not only can tobacco be sold only to adults, it can be used only on their own property or in designated smoking areas, where it won't inadvertently affect others.

Returning to reality, it's clear that given the established dangers of secondhand smoke, we wouldn't even be having this debate if we hadn't had years of cultural desensitization to public smoking. Research conclusively demonstrates the unacceptable risk it poses for public health, the latest salvo being a June 2006 U.S. surgeon general's report titled "The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke."

University of California medical professor Dr. Stanton Glantz is a member of the scientific committee that approved the aforementioned breast-cancer study in 2005. He said in an interview: "I went into the review process with a blank slate as an outside reviewer, and it was clear this was a significant find. It's already having significant influence; in the next few months it will become the dominant view."

For the sake of the 55 percent of the population living in areas with no restrictions on public smoking, let's hope so.

Harvard-educated Shaunti Feldhahn (scfeldhahn@yahoo.com) is a conservative Christian author and speaker, and married mother of two children.