Smoking ban is right thing for Executive to do
Smoking ban is right thing for Executive to do
BELINDA CUNNISON (Letters, December 12) needs to rethink her arithmetic. From the numbers that she gives, 865 Scots non-smokers die every year from tobacco-related illnesses.
Genetically Modified Crops Explained (Medical News Today)
We are regularly confronted with genetically modified foods, be it in the news or on our plates. In what way are GM crops different from conventional crops? What is known about their possible risks for human health or the environment?
Report: Organic Food Will Become Mainstream By 2025 - AMonline.com
Report: Organic Food Will Become Mainstream By 2025AMonline.com, WI - 3 hours agoThe organic industry is set to enjoy good growth over the next twenty years, according to a new study by the nation's Organic Trade Association (OTA), which …
Swiss Cytos allergy vaccine shows promise
The loss-making company is developing a range of so-called ImmunoDrugs, a patented type of medicine, which aims to stimulate the production of antibodies needed to fight disease, allergy or addiction.
Patrick Hutton is right to express doubts about the figures concerning alleged deaths from second-hand smoke (’Smoking ban is the right thing for Executive to do’). The figures came from different sources and anomalies can arise, and often do.
The figure of 2 to 3 in 100,000 came from the Department of Health in London (Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health) and referred only to lung cancer. The 865 deaths attributed to second-hand smoke come from a report commissioned this year by the Scottish Executive, and covers the four conditions assoicated with tobacco smoke: heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and respiratory disease. Lung cancer is by far the smallest killer of these four conditions although it kills a much higher proportion of people under the age of 75.
To take the ‘worst case scenario’, the 865 figure accounts for just over 2 per cent of non-smoker deaths. However even this is only a statistical correlation, and such things usually have to reach 3% (remember we are talking about 4 different conditions) before it is worth considering whether there is a biological link. Epidemiology in itself proves nothing.
The Scottish Parliament is acting against the wishes of the Scottish electorate. There are other factors in the deaths of everybody that can be dealt with: it is not necessary to threaten to criminalise a third of the electorate.
Belinda Cunnison
South Sloan Street
Edinburgh
(14 December 2005)
Comment by Belinda Cunnison — December 24, 2005 @ 02:00