The World's Worst Ever Lie About Cigarettes

According to a new study from the United States Surgeon General that’s being reported in the media – and being treated seriously – is that “any exposure to tobacco, from occasional smoking to secondhand smoke, can damage a person’s DNA in ways that lead to cancer.” The surgeon general wants us to believe that one cigarette, one exposure to second-hand smoke will irrevocably damage your DNA, and every organ in your body.

This is surely the worst lie ever told about cigarettes.

According to Regina Benjamin, The Surgeon General, even one cigarette can cause – CAUSE! – a heart attack. According to General Benjamin one exposure to cigarette smoke – either first or second-hand – causes immediate damage and other kinds of nastiness.

Again, I will repeat this for emphasis: This is surely the worst lie ever told about cigarettes.

The various versions of this story that have appeared over the past few hours on the Internet are all long on hyperbole and short on facts or details. There are quotes from the de rigeur anti-smoking folks who are always ready to pounce on an anti-tobacco “story,” yet there is little in the way of details about the study. The usual anti-smoking facts are trotted out when a story like this breaks, but really it’s just yadda-yadda-yadda. The important facts like who conducted the study, how long of a time period and how did the researchers measure exposure to smoke, really matter and have yet to be revealed.

Is there a human being in America who has never been exposed to the evil cigarette smoke? What’s next, “American Men Cannot Prove That They’ve Stopped Beating Their Wives.”

Tomorrow – or really even by tonight – if the surgeon general and our elected officials do not act immediately to outlaw tobacco products we will know that this is yet another lie. According to this study, cigarettes are more damaging than automobiles, bullets, guns, knives, violent crime, cancer, the Nazis, the Taliban and al Qaeda, Al Bundy, the X-games, X-rated movies and anything else you can think of.

Cigarettes are manslaughter in a pocket-sized package, for that office worker catching a smoke-break, huddled in front of the office building you walked into this morning just damaged your DNA for good. Next time you walk through a cloud of second-hand smoke, get a name so you’ll know who to go after when the inevitable happens.

The only thing that’s going to happen is that the government will levy even more taxes and fees on tobacco products because the last thing the government wants is to miss a seat on the revenue train. The government and the so-called public health officials have no problem with you smoking yourself to death as long as they get their cut.

As a matter of fact, the government is as addicted to cigarette money as smokers are to cigarettes. The United States Surgeon General telling us that one cigarette can cause this kind of damage is the world’s worst-ever lie about cigarettes.