Published 19 July 2000

Ban likely harmful to electoral health

This letter is in response to the July 14 editorial Smoke and mirrors. Given the obvious cynicism of the Free Press about the obvious crass, self-serving motivation of city council on the smoking issue, I would like to remind the Free Press about the message of Tony Blair's The Third Way. Micro-management of people's lifestyle can be very harmful to electoral health on voting day. Since Tony Blair wrote the Third Way in the Washington Post several months ago, John McCain lost the crucial South Carolina primary over the smoking issue. Bill Bradley's anti-tobacco stance did not resonate with many of the Democrat true believers. Blair's thesis was that the left radicalizes its enemies and alienates its allies on the issue.

What great case did the proponents of a smoking ban make? Did they offer the media or the public anything remotely approaching evidence to substantiate their ever-more ridiculous and outlandish claims? Is this a new low for an agenda that has nothing to offer except more punishment for recalcitrant sinners?

In a paper entitled * Toxic Toxicology Placing Scientific Credibility At Risk by world renowned research chemists, they wrote: "Exaggerated estimates of risk can themselves be toxic inasmuch as these exaggerated estimates of risk create confusion, misunderstanding, anxiety and, inevitably, utter disdain by the general public. We call this phenomenon "toxic toxicology" for, in the end, it does far more harm than good. ... "
* This is a .pdf file and you must have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to read the document. If you don't have it, for a free download click here

"A basic tenet in toxicology is "the dose makes the poison." Cooking food generates thousands of chemicals. There are over 1,000 chemicals reported in a cup of coffee -- 19 of them carcinogens, but this does not mean that coffee is dangerous. At some level, every chemical becomes toxic, but there are levels below which no adverse health effects are observed."

WARREN KLASS
Winnipeg