smoking

I don't mind smoking being banned in theatres, restuarants, planes and so on. For some people it is an unpleasant experience, and I expect they would like to enjoy their entertainment, food and travel unbothered by someone else's habit. Nor do I object if any establishment seeks a smoke-free environment. I do object to a gtovernment making this ban, and to it being banned on the grounds of health, because I repeat my claim that this basis is unfounded. You mentioned an impressive number of chemicals which fails to impress me. That is because there are an equal number of such chemicals in everything we touch and ingest. The number alone has no meaning. What is more important is how dangerous particular chemicals are, in what does, and what the passive smoker's exposure is. Quite often people refer to the '40 carcinogenic compounds' secondary smoke supposedly contains. In reality only six of those have in fact been classified as 'known human carcinogens' (1989 Report of the Surgeon General. pgs. 86-87). The bulk of the other 40 compounds show insufficient evidence of being human carcinogens and many are commonly found in foods, coffee, and the general environment (Science, 258: 261-265 (1992). The exposure of nonsmokers to the six actual human carcinogens is usually so minute as to be almost imaginary in nature and is sometimes far less than other everyday environmental exposures. Arsenic is one of the carcinogens. However, you would have to sit in a room with a smoker smoking 165,000 cigarettes to be exposed to as much arsenic as you would get from a large glass of water. Of the other five carcinogens, four (naphthylamine, aminobi-phenyl, vinyl chloride and chromium) occur in amounts even less than arsenic at an average of about fifteen nanograms each. Benzene is the sixth carcinogen. The average cigarette produces roughly 300 micrograms of benzene (1986 Report of the Surgeon General. p.130). Estimates of smoke exposure in a fairly average indoor space suggest that a non-smoker would be exposed to roughly three tenths of a microgram. Benzene is normally found in fruits, fish, vegetables, nuts, dairy products, beverages, and eggs. The National Cancer Institute estimates that an individual may safely ingest up to 250 micrograms in their food per day, every single day of the year. The 'safe' exposure to benzene from one day of a normal diet is roughly equal to the exposure experienced by a nonsmoker sharing an airspace with smokers for over 750 hours. Here is a list of chemicals and the number of cigarettes need to reach the Chemical Permissible Exposure Limit or Threshold Limit Value in a 'small tavern': Acetaldehyde 13,500 Acetone 1,256,470 Acetonitrile 140,000 Acrolein 473 Ammonia 3751 Aniline 814,286 Arsenic 375,000 Cyanide 8,380 Formaldehyde 1317 Toluene 322,286 This makes interesting reading: http://www.godfreybloommep.co.uk/downloads/mainstream-and-environmental-tobacco-smoke-gio-gori-1991.pdf