--- Doug Pensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snippage throughout>
> I'm not sure that even a majority of > environmentalists believe in the idea > of a noble savage or that we need to save the planet > (as if we could kill it). Ah, but that weakens his argument of "Environmentalism as Religion." <snort> He also seems to think that all environmentalists (as if there weren't as much variety in them as in Democrats or Republicans or Catholics etc.) don't understand that "Nature is red in tooth and claw" frequently, and think all wild animals are cute Disneyesque figures, and believe in a Happy Golden Age When Man And Animal And Plant Lived In Peace And Harmony Together. How insulting. > Maybe second-hand smoke isn't as dangerous as > professed, but I am sure as > hell happy I don't have to breathe it anymore. Anecdotaly, I got bronchitis *every time* I was exposed to 2nd-hand tobacco smoke for more than 3 hours straight (as at a bar, or driving in a car with a smoker -- I avoid such exposure religiously now). But here are a few recent studies that do seem to find second-hand tobacco smoke a health problem, at least for some people: Children, blood lead levels, and second-hand smoke: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14569189&dopt=Abstract Second-hand smoke exposure and blood lead levels in U.S. children [N=5592] "...The adjusted linear regression model showed that geometric mean blood lead levels were 38% higher (95% confidence interval [CI] = 25-52%) in children with high cotinine levels compared with children who had low cotinine levels. The logistic regression models showed that children with high cotinine levels were more likely to have blood lead levels >/=10 mug/dL than were children with low cotinine levels (odds ratio [OR] = 4.4; CI = 1.9-10.5)..." [Cotinine is a metabolite of nicotine used to document tobacco exposure, as opposed to self-reported exposure.] This is a full article/statement from the AAoP, with over 50 studies cited: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/99/4/639#B9 "Results of epidemiologic studies provide strong evidence that exposure of children to environmental tobacco smoke is associated with increased rates of lower respiratory illness and increased rates of middle ear effusion, asthma, and sudden infant death syndrome. Exposure during childhood may also be associated with development of cancer during adulthood..." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14678338&dopt=Abstract "Passive smoking impairs the elasticity of the aorta in patients with coronary heart disease. We therefore studied the effect of passive smoking on wave reflection in the aorta, a marker of arterial stiffness, in healthy subjects. ...Acute exposure to passive smoking has a deleterious effect on the arterial pressure waveform in healthy young males but not in females, suggesting a possible protection of female gender from functional changes in arteries." OTOH, breast cancer seems to increase with smoke dose: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12244030&dopt=Abstract http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12641186&dopt=Abstract "Nitric oxide (NO) is produced and detected in the exhalate from the respiratory tract where it plays important regulatory functions. Exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) concentrations are reduced in active cigarette smokers between cigarettes and in nonsmoking subjects during short-term exposure to environmental tobacco smoke...Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke transiently--but consistently--decreased eNO concentration in healthy, nonsmoking subjects, suggesting that second-hand smoke can directly affect NO in the airway environment." [Nitric oxide is also important as a vasodilator, and level reduction in local microclimates, as in the coronary arteries, contributes to coronary artery spasm -> possible heart attack in a diseased or compromised vessel.] Second-hand tobacco smoke and heart disease: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12198272&dopt=Abstract "To investigate the association between environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure (at least 30 minutes a day) and the risk of developing acute coronary syndromes (ACS)...This study supports the hypothesis that exposure to ETS increases the risk of developing ACS. The consistency of these findings with the existing totality of evidence presented in the literature supports the role of ETS in the aetiology of ACS." [N~1900; figures reported in this abstract] The elderly and environmental tobacco smoke [that's the "in" phrase now, instead of "second-hand smoke," as you can see from most of the titles cited]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11852892&dopt=Abstract "...There is convincing evidence that ETS causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease, both of which are diseases of the elderly. Several cross-sectional studies show increased occurrence of chronic respiratory symptoms and deficits in ventilatory lung function in relation to ETS exposure at home and/or at work. A limited number of studies have found significant relations between ETS exposure and asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumococcal infections and stroke in the elderly. Longitudinal studies are needed before any definite conclusions can be made concerning ETS and noncarcinogenic respiratory diseases in the elderly..." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11740032&dopt=Abstract "On the basis of present exposures, we estimate there will be about 325 potentially avoidable deaths caused by SHS in New Zealand each year in the future." [Not mentioned in the abstract how they came to that figure.] You will be alarmed to learn that rabbits exposed to secondhand smoke develop arterial plaque/atheromatous changes: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11502707&dopt=Abstract While cats have increased risk of lymphoma developing: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12142262&dopt=Abstract "...These findings suggest that passive smoking may increase the risk of malignant lymphoma in cats and that further study of this relation in humans is warranted." And dogs must worry about nasal cancer: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9525536&dopt=Abstract This is one of several articles reporting that the tobacco industry has interfered with the study/regulation of second-hand smoke exposure and its health consequences: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10770318&dopt=Abstract I can post lots more if anyone wants them. > It seems to me that the statement "Our record in the > past, for example > managing national parks, is humiliating. Our > fifty-year effort at > forest-fire suppression is a well-intentioned > disaster from which our > forests will never recover." is exactly the kind of > rhetoric he's arguing > against for most of the rest of the speech. Never? Heck, even the *redwoods* will recover from clear-cutting in a millenium or two...assuming there are some patches of virgin forest left as nurseries...the salmon runs should recover sooner, assuming some other tree-cover grows to protect the high streams so that the mud/silt-of-erosion clears and gravelbeds are restored... Debbi who is clearly on a tear (but with nary a drop of alcohol on board!) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
