Anti-smokers make me laugh. A lot.
Right now we are being treated to a scary sounding TV spot that claims 19,000 Europeans die every year from second hand smoke. This number has been drastically reduced from the 69,000 annual death toll we read about on the WHO website. Anti-smokers also tout the figure of 120,000 "tobacco related deaths" in the United Kingdom. But when one of our members writes to the Department of Health, he was told "in 2006, an estimated 81,200 people died from tobacco related disease".
It really is time to make your minds up. I can help you with the second hand smoke deaths. The answer is zero. Again, the answer was supplied by our DoH, who said:
"It is not possible to give a single, authoritative, definite figure on how many lives are lost each year from ill-health caused by exposure to secondhand smoke".
If it isn't possible to give a definite figure, this implies that the numbers are false. Simply guessed at. This will not do. If the numbers are not arrived at scientifically, we have no reason to accept them. And we have proved time and time again that anti-smokers make up their "facts" because they believe the end justifies the means.
I particularly enjoyed this letter to an American newspaper, in which the writer points out a couple of, erm, mathematical mistakes:
Anti-smoking advocates should just be honest
Might I respectfully suggest to Ms. Cahill of Dodgeville that whatever amount of her "own time" as a "private citizen" she spent listening to Dale Schultz "disregard the health of his constituents," might have been better spent checking the validity of her fractured factoids before submitting them for print.
She stated that until the time the total smoking ban takes effect, "654 people will die of tobacco-related diseases every day in Wisconsin." Taking into account that this means 238,710 (239,364 in a leap year) unfortunates will go to "meet their maker" per year, it would indeed be an alarming prediction. 1996 was a year highlighted in Wisconsin statistics because the death toll in our state was 45,107, the highest in 86 years.
It is even more alarming if one is aware that her stated figure projects to nearly 10 percent of the population of Wisconsin, is more than twice the number of U.S. servicemen who perished during the course of World War II from 1942 to 1945, and more than four times the number of our Armed Forces who died in Vietnam.
I would humbly ask of all the vociferous non-smoking citizens that you drop the "holier-than-thou" attitude you espouse just because you are so desperately concerned for everyone's health. Admit to us that you just don't like smoking, you don't approve of it, you think it is a stinky low-class habit, and you wish we miscreants would conform to your dictates or just go away. (Actually, one would think it comforting for you to contemplate that over 200,000 of us could be dropping like flies this year, thus creating an abundance of clean, unsullied air for everyone).
I have added the link to the Wisconsin newspaper below.
Go To Story »
