Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Who knew?

Turns out sniffin's as bad as puffin.

At least the Bush folks say so:
WASHINGTON - Breathing any amount of someone else's tobacco smoke harms nonsmokers, the surgeon general declared Tuesday -- a strong condemnation of secondhand smoke that is sure to fuel nationwide efforts to ban smoking in public.

"The debate is over. The science is clear: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance, but a serious health hazard," said U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona.

More than 126 million nonsmoking Americans are regularly exposed to smokers' fumes -- what Carmona termed "involuntary smoking" -- and tens of thousands die each year as a result, concludes the 670-page study. It cites "overwhelming scientific evidence" that secondhand smoke causes heart disease, lung cancer and a list of other illnesses.

The report calls for completely smoke-free buildings and public places, saying that separate smoking sections and ventilation systems don't fully protect nonsmokers. Seventeen states and more than 400 towns, cities and counties have passed strong no-smoking laws.

What a revelation! Does that mean that we should go smoke-free? If GWB's own surgeon general says so .... how can we argue?

And so it goes.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see you're giving the Champaign County Board (Controlled by Democrats) a pass for violating the Open Meetings Act. How shocking.

Ol' Guy said...

Fact is I can't comment on every outrage that comes down the road. There's just too many. And it's not like it hasn't been done before. The GOP did most of its business in caucus and then rubber stamped it in meetings without comment when it controlled the board. Those meetings (all were a quorum) were illegal, too. Of course it's shocking. It's also pretty much business as usual for about he past quarter century or more.

Anonymous said...

didn't the surgeon general also say masturbation would reduce unwed pregnacy?

Ol' Guy said...

I believe that was a Dem SurgGen.