Smokescreen

A tremendous amount of hot air is being expounded in these columns on the subject of smoking and most of it is polluted by ignorance or blind propaganda.

The latest culprit is Charles Micallef, senior pharmacist and media coordinator in the Health Promotion Department, no less, who writes (January 16):

"I recall how Mrs X had died from lung cancer when she never touched a cigarette in her life. This was however attributed to the fact that her husband used to smoke at home. As a consequence, they both died more or less at the same age, in their mid-50s. Hence, second-hand smoking also kills..."

Hardly scientific, is it? Mr Micallef must know that there are types of lung cancer that are totally unrelated to smoking, or in fact with air intake of any kind. There is no "hence" about it.

While nobody (least of all, smokers) denies that smoking can cause cancer, it is not the case that smoking inevitably "does" cause cancer; many thousands, probably millions, of smokers have outlived non-smokers and died with comparatively healthy lungs. Nor is there any proof whatsoever that "passive" smoking kills. Unless a victim lived in a totally controlled environment, where the air was polluted by nothing other than "second-hand" smoke, it would be impossible to draw that conclusion.

In Malta, where in places the street air has been described as "chronic" and elsewhere as "among the worst in Europe" it is hypocritical to put all the blame on tobacco. Banning smoking in pubs and restaurants may in the long term help discourage smoking generally, but the simple fact is that they are private property and nobody is forced to go into them.

People do not, however, have any choice about the quality of the air - often visible - that they ingest on the streets.

When the government issues its regular figures on "smoking-related deaths", this is, therefore, no more than a wild guess. "Lung-related deaths" might be a more accurate description but to blame smoking is merely applying unsubstantiated statistics to wishful thinking by the anti-smoking lobby.

No right-thinking person wants to encourage smoking. But it would be a pleasant change if government officials could be encouraged to get their facts right before bursting into print.