Tobacco.org

LETTER: Delaney ignores facts about smoking's links to cancer 

I read the June 15 article “Ohio Senate introduces smoking ban revision” with great interest. I was especially captivated by your interview with Bill Delaney. I am a lung cancer survivor. You will receive very little feedback on your article from people like me, for most are either critically ill or dead . . .

Mr. Delaney feels that Issue 5 is a “dumb law,” but 85 percent of lung cancers are related to smoking. Mr. Delaney also states that “his employees would gladly give up this ‘right' [to breathe smoke-free air]” and that “secondhand smoke is not dangerous” (citing The Smoker's Club Inc.). Yet a recent report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, finds that even brief secondhand smoke exposure can cause immediate harm. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent (www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/report/).

To posit that secondhand smoke is not dangerous to one's health is irresponsible, absurd and ill-informed.

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