Second-Hand Surveys

A few years ago, there were a couple of medical-type reports that said that second-hand smoke did you no real harm. I never thought those reports were particularly credible and, sure enough, we now have a new major study that says, among other things, that smoking bans in public places can reduce the number of heart attacks by as much as 36%.

Anyone surprised by this? I wouldn't think so. Even if you believed those studies that said second-hand smoke didn't hurt you, it's not that incredible to find out that maybe it does. I mean, it's not like someone has just come out with a report that claims Martians walk among us. Still, I was amazed at those who embraced the "no real harm" findings. One that comes to mind is the Penn & Teller show on Showtime, the name of which I'm not mentioning since doing so seems to lower my site's standing in some search engines.

I like that show even though I often disagree with its "findings"…and even though every time they set up one of their silly Candid Camera-style experiments, they prove absolutely nothing and pass it off as something. I just like skepticism and wish we had more of it in the media. In fact, I wish we had more skepticism of the skeptics since despite what some skeptics seem to think, going against the Conventional Wisdom doesn't automatically mean your wisdom is correct.

Their first season, Penn & Teller did a show about second-hand smoke and concluded it did not create health problems. As I recall, the supporting evidence was that one or two studies had said as much, and somehow these reports trumped all the many that had concluded otherwise. But what bothered me was that the show attacked people who were working to ban smoking in public places and treated them like they were scumbuckets pushing an outragous lie — like if they were claiming to talk to the dead or something — and bilking gullible folks of their life savings with the lie.

Since then, studies like the above-cited have convinced Penn & Teller that they were wrong, and they've admitted as much here and there, and I think they stuck a line in one later episode that said so. But it's kind of like a newspaper that gets it wrong on Page One, prints the later retraction in the classified ad section where no one will see it, and doesn't apologize to those it wronged. They weren't the only ones who did this, of course, or even the worst offenders. A lot of people let one or two reports of dubious pedigree overrule simple common sense. Second-hand smoke makes most people cough and feel ill. Doesn't that suggest that maybe, just maybe, it ain't good for you?