My uncle, who so happened to be a chain smoker, educated me one day about the fallacy that 2nd hand smoke caused cancer. He was a chain smoker, and he already had a lung removed, yet he still felt the facts were so that it was worthy to note the "bullshit that THEY teach kids these days."
At the time I just blew my uncle off as a smoker who didn't want to admit the truth. Yet being the person I am (and perhaps partly through his example), I decided a better response to his little speech was to do my own research.
In doing so I came upon
this study that was independently funded by the World Health Organization (WHO). The study was a review of many other studies on the subject, and the goal was to prove that 2nd hand smoking causes cancer.
Ironically, the study proved the opposite: that 2nd hand smoke does not cause cancer. Yet since the study didn't show what they wanted, they didn't release it. They didn't do this because one of the goals of the progressive WHO is to create an ideal world. And in an ideal world people don't smoke because smoking kills.
Now it is still true that 2nd hand smoke is unhealthy, and most studies about it show this. Yet it is just about a proven fact now that 2nd hand smoke does not cause lung cancer. The WHO was hoping this study would help justify their attempts to get rid of smoking worldwide through higher taxes and laws banning it in public places.
The ultimate goal of the WHO is to ban smoking altogether, yet because of the U.S. Constitution, this is nearly impossible to do because people have a Constitutional right to be stupid so long as they don't infringe on the rights of others. Ideally, the Constitution protects us from each other, and not necessarily from ourselves. So if we want to smoke, so be it.
Of course another reason progressives want to get rid of smoking altogether is because another goal is universal healthcare. They don't want to pay for the health consequences of personal choices that are bad, like smoking.
This is yet another reason I'm opposed to universal healthcare, and even Obama care, because if someone is paying your bills, they have a right to tell you what to do. In other words, you are a slave to the person you are in debt to.
Thus, every time a new law is made, you lose another freedom. Every time we receive another government entitlement, we lose another freedom. So if we continue to allow our government to create more government programs, we will eventually be slaves to the state. The same thing happened in ancient Rome, and destroyed that republic.
The WHO once again has ignored the above mentioned study as it released a new study that shows that 2nd hand smoke kills up to 600,000 people each year, and this accounts for 1% of all deaths each year. You can read the report
here.
The report notes that, "Researchers estimated that annually second-hand smoke causes about 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 deaths from lower respiratory disease, 36,900 deaths from asthma and 21,400 deaths from lung cancer."
In lei of the previous study by the NWO that showed 2nd hand smoke does not cause lung cancer, can we now assume the NWO is conveniently ignoring this study. Their ultimate goal is to get rid of smoking, regardless of facts.
This almost makes one wonder about the true intentions of progressives. Are they after what's best for the people, or the government? I almost think they want to get rid of smoking so the government doesn't have to pay for diseases caused by smoking.
So they raise taxes. They also create more rules or laws that ban smoking in public places. All of this with the intent of forcing people to quit, as opposed to people quitting by individual choice. Progressives don't believe in individual choice, the believe in the state making choices for the people.
Of course, as I've written before, too many rules (laws) and too high of taxes result only in people finding ways to get around the taxes or rules. It creates a world of cheaters and liars, because the natural tendency of human beings is to make their own decisions. People don't like people telling them what to do.
A great example of this is in New York where taxes are high on cigarettes and public smoking is not legal, a black market for cigarettes has been created, as you can read
here.
I have no vested interest in people smoking. Well, I say that knowing that my career as an RT is mainly funded by patients who smoke. Yet I don't want people to smoke. It bothers my asthma when people smoke around me. It threatens the health of my kids.
So I don't want people to smoke. I want people to quit. I want my dad to quit, yet he has made the personal choice to smoke. And, yes, he does get cigarettes illegally over the Internet because he can get the cheaper that way.
Second hand smoke is bad as you can see by any link that lists the hazards of second hand smoke, such as
this and even the WHO itself as you can see
here.
You should educate your patients about the dangers of 2nd hand smoke. If someone says they quit smoking, make sure they know to not let others smoke around them. Yet also don't get all your wisdom from one place, and decide for yourself what is fact and what is not a fact.
Because Lord knows it's hard to get all the facts even from sources we otherwise think are trustworthy. Now I'm certain the American Cancer Society and other such resources are trying to provide honest facts. Yet they, like you and me, get their wisdom from sources they hope are being honest with us.
This is a perfect example of why I created this blog. You and I are interested in facts and then we make an educated decision, rather than just believing everything we read. While we might not have much of a choice what we do as RTs, we can be smart.
