common fallacies put forward by smoking apologists

Fallacy 1: drinking harms people other than those drinking. It is possible for drunk people to cause others harm but currently in the eyes of the law the responsibility for actions while drunk are with the actor not the alcohol.

Fallacy 2: you have the 'right' to smoke anywhere you like. Currently ABH, GBH and manslaughter are illegal... a US Environmental Protection Agency report in 1993 classified ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) as a class A (known human) carcinogen, a category reserved for only the most dangerous cancer-causing agents... passive smoking is known to cause serious harm or death... how is this different from ABH, GBH or manslaughter?

Fallacy 3: banning smoking is financially unviable. Smoking is currently banned (in public places) in California, parts of Australia and parts of Holland... so far in California there has been a slight increase in trade in bars, pubs and restaurants... in Australia and Holland there has been no significant change.

Fallacy 4: alcohol inevitably causes harm (like smoking). Alcohol only causes serious harm when taken in extreme excess... small amount of some alcoholic beverages have been shown to have some beneficial effects.

Fallacy 5: smoking looks cool smokers look like babies with dummies in their mouths.

things that'd put any sane person off smoking and smokers

That the Government-appointed Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH) reviewed the evidence on passive smoking and concluded that passive smoking is a cause of lung cancer and ischaemic heart disease in adult non-smokers, and a cause of respiratory disease, cot death, middle ear disease and asthmatic attacks in children.

That the SCOTH report also draws attention to the particular dangers of passive smoking for young children. Mothers who smoke double the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (cot death). The risk of acute lower respiratory illness in babies exposed to either parent smoking is increased by a half (odds ratio 1.48) and for maternal smoking by two thirds (odds ratio 1.64).

That non-smokers who are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke have a 25 per cent increased risk of heart disease or lung cancer if they live in a smoky household.

That based on the findings of the California EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) report which shows how many people are affected by passive smoking in California and the USA, ASH has calculated that there are at least 2 million incidences of illnesses caused by passive smoking every year in the UK.

That this includes more than twelve thousand deaths from heart attacks and more than 30,000 new cases of respiratory disease in infants every year.

That some of the main findings from the California EPA report are:

That there is increased asthma induction and exacerbation: - in the UK, there are between 1,600 and 5,400 new cases of asthma every year in children as a result of parental smoking.

That there is increased risk of nasal sinus cancer.

That there is increased acute and chronic heart disease morbidity and mortality: - in the UK, up to 12,000 non-smokers are at risk of CHD as a result of breathing in their spouse's tobacco smoke.

That the EPA report estimates that ETS is responsible for several thousand lung cancers in non-smokers each year and, perhaps equally important, links ETS exposure with severe respiratory problems in infants and young children.

That there is increased risk of lung cancer to non-smokers in a smoky environment: - the excess risk of lung cancer in life-long non-smokers who lived with a smoker was 24 per cent.

That a review of 19 published studies of the risk of ischaemic heart disease found that non-smokers have an overall 23 per cent increased risk of heart disease when living with a smoker.

That the US EPA report in 1993 classified ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) as a class A (known human) carcinogen, a category reserved for only the most dangerous cancer-causing agents.

That exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke is carcinogenic and may cause up to 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually, according to a recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

That the above report also added that between 150,000 and 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia in children may be caused by consistent exposure to cigarette smoke. Asthmatic children, in particular, may suffer increased symptoms from second-hand smoke.

That a study published in the journal Thorax found a causal relationship between parental smoking and acute lower respiratory illness in their children. The study found smoking in the home created a 57-72 per cent higher risk of respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis and pneumonia among infants under three years.

That from 37,000 to 40,000 people die from heart and blood vessel disease caused by other people's smoke each year in the US.

That cigarette smoking contributing to premature morbidity and mortality in the United States, accounting for approximately 430,000 out of the two million deaths annually... i.e. 22%

Those as many as 30% of all coronary heart disease (CHD) deaths in the United States each year are attributable to cigarette smoking.

That an estimated 146,000 Americans died of lung cancer in 1992, and that cigarette smoking caused 90 percent of these deaths.

That smoking is responsible for about 30 percent of all cancer deaths annually in the United States: more than 155,000 each year.

That smoking also nearly doubles the risk of ischaemic stroke.

That smokers are also at increased risk for peripheral vascular disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, and many other chronic diseases.

That if smoking-related cancers could be eliminated from our society, we would see a significant decline in the annual cancer death rate instead of small but steady increases.