COMMENT: Reanalysis of systematically defective studies is nothing but recycling old hate propaganda, not scientific research. The studies are defective because they fail to consider the effects of infection by Helico-bacter pylori and Chlamydia pneumoniae. Smokers are more likely to be infected because of lower socioeconomic status than non-exposed non-smokers, as are passive smokers.

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: He found that people who have never smoked have an estimated 30 percent greater chance of developing heart disease if they live with a smoker. "This is surprisingly large -- almost half the risk of smoking 20 cigarettes per day even though the exposure is only one percent of that of a smoker," said Law.

COMMENT: Passive smokers have a higher risk of heart disease because of socioeconomic similaritiy to smokers, which results in higher rates of HP and CP infection. This socioeconomic similarity is the real reason that heart disease rates are similar - not because of the pretense Law gives of exposure to one percent of the tobacco smoke of a smoker.

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: "The tobacco industry must now stop its pathetic attempts to evade the evidence and accept that cigarettes not only harm and kill those who smoke them, they harm and kill non-smokers too."

COMMENT: These anti-smoking conspirators must now stop THEIR pathetic efforts to deceive the public with their defective and fraudulent studies. Including, their pitiful animal studies of smoke exposure and heart disease which rely on inducing atherosclerosis with unnatural high-fat diets, and then attempting to argue that the difference between the exposed and the non-exposed is statistically significant, while ignoring animal studies of Chlamydia pneumoniae which show that the bacterium alone caused athero-sclerosis, IN THE ABSENCE OF OTHER RISK FACTORS.

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: In a separate study also from the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Allan Hackshaw said 37 studies showed that passive smoking raised a non-smoker's chance of getting lung cancer by 26 percent.

COMMENT: Once again, reanalysis of systematically defective studies is nothing but recycling old hate propaganda, not scientific research. Although a number of these studies showed increased risks from respiratory illnesses, the anti-smoking medical establishment has refused to systematically explore the role of these illnesses. In particular, Chlamydia pneumoniae must be investigated, and by biomedical means, unlike the previous studies which relied on questionnaires and diagnoses, which due to the typically mild symptoms of CP infection would result in gross underestimation of its risks.

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: Hackshaw explained that carcinogens in environmental tobacco smoke are inhaled and passed into the blood. Non smokers who lived with smokers had increased concentrations of tobacco specific carcinogens in blood and urine samples.

COMMENT: Even the phrase, "tobacco specific carcinogens" is a lie, because it actually refers to "NICOTINE" specific compounds, which are ingested in quantities relevant to non-smokers from foods such as tomatoes and potatoes.

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: The dangers of involuntary smoking on non-smokers have been known since the early 1960s, but the two latest studies published on Friday provide the most definitive results to date and dispel any arguments that excess risk is just chance or due to other factors.

COMMENT: In view of the preceding indisputable facts regarding the methodological defects of the anti-smokers' studies, the statement that they "dispel any arguments that excess risk is just chance or due to other factors" is an outrageous, wanton, and reckless lie.

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: The latest studies are more bad news for the tobacco industry, still reeling from reports that the BMA might follow the United States in demanding compensation to cover the cost of treatment for smoking-related diseases.

COMMENT: The pretense that smokers are an economic burden to society is an outright, malicious libel, deliberately spread by news agencies such as Reuters and the Associated Press, we believe, in order to incite those fraudulent lawsuits.

Counterpoint by

Carol Thompson
Smokers' Rights Action Group
P.O. Box 259575
Madison, WI 53725-9575
Phone: 608-249-4568