Winnipeg Free Press

October 25 1999

Punishing a minority

When I read Tom Oleson's column last week, I took the unusual step of 'phoning him to say how much I enjoyed it. For years, anti-smoking groups were after tobacco companies to tell the truth about the dangers of smoking. Now the tobacco companies have come clean. Isn't it time the media scrutinize the claims that are unsubstantiated from anti-smoking groups - especially on their claims of second-hand smoke?

I can quote chapter and verse some 70 reports, including 32 accepted as evidence and submitted by both sides in the EPA's 92 -page decision that "vacated" virtually every claim about about second-hand smoke. The judgement was recently upheld on appeal and the EPA has removed its document from the internet.

I could quote Sir Richard Doll, the world's foremost expert (epidemiology), on the question of second hand-smoke. Sir Richard was quoted some months ago in the Washington Post as calling the practise of throwing people outside for a cigarette "barbaric".

This is not about protecting anybody's health. This is about punishing a minority for its lifestyle.

Warren Klass
Winnipeg