American Lung Association: Are they smoking those funny cigarettes?

ACSH has long been a leader in the fight against cigarettes, and we take pride in the work we have done to inform the public about the vast (and little-known) spectrum of real risks posed by cigarettes.

At the same time, we firmly believe that educating the public on this important issue requires truth-telling and not appealing to hysteria. Yet we re afraid that this may be what s behind a recent report released by the American Lung Association entitled State of Tobacco Control 2010.

The report states, [T]here is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke and that smoke causes damage immediately to the cardiovascular system. Even low levels of tobacco exposure lead to disease and death, including heart attack, stroke, weakened immune system, and asthma attacks.

No safe level at all? ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan asks, Has the Lung Association damaged its credibility in making such a dramatic, unqualified assertion?

A clue that the Lung Association may have overstated the case against cigarettes came in the response of one news story which promptly reported that smoking tobacco cigarettes causes lung cancer within minutes of inhaling.

That s simply ridiculous, said ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross, and worse, it makes everything that s said after that incredible.