Jim Fedako at the mises.org blog posts about public school indoctrination as it relates to cigarettes. He and the commenters point out that people have long known that smoking tobacco is not healthy. Indeed, I always thought this attack on the tobacco industry was incredibly weak and can’t believe that it successfully led to all of the lawsuits and propaganda in the 90’s.
Last month, Congress gave the FDA control over tobacco and, now, the FDA is taking aim at electronic cigarettes. Again, I don’t think that smokers who choose these smokeless cigarettes actually think they are healthy. They think they may be healthier than regular cigarettes, and are certainly healthier for the people around smokers. Second-hand smoke is the rationale for most anti-smoking policies and regulations, so these alternatives are purely in the realm of what a consenting adult puts into his own body. But, such matters are no longer considered private choices in the US.
By the way, yesterday’s AP article claims that “Manufacturers have touted the products as a healthier alternative to smoking because they don’t contain cancer-causing ingredients.” I think this is untrue – manufacturers call the products healthier because they don’t contain certain cancer-causing ingredients, such as tar. I’d be surprised if anyone could find evidence that the manufacturers have claimed that these things don’t cause cancer… surely they learned something from watching the tobacco industry over the years!
9:27 am on July 23, 2009
