I'd like to address the claims made by the spokesmen of the American Cancer Society ("Barred from Bars," January 30) regarding the alleged health hazards posed from secondhand smoke (SHS).

Their statements are nothing more than the programmed speech of the health zealots with no regard for facts and no regard for the public that they spoon feed their lies to in order to further their agenda.

In presenting his side, Mr. Distasio used the oft quoted Environmental Protection Agency estimation that 3000 people a year die from SHS.

This report was ruled a fraud by the federal court in 1998.  That ruling was substantiated by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of Congress.

The public was kept in the dark about this "for their own good" and Mr. Distasio has no intentions of enlightening anyone to this fact for his own good.  Imagine someone holding up a contract that a court deemed invalid and still demanding that it be enforced.  Who would stand for that?

The study was a fraud, ergo those who still quote it, which is everyone pushing for smoking bans, are also frauds.

It has yet to be proven by any researcher that SHS is a class A carcinogen.

Mr. Klotz's comparison of SHS to "asbestos hanging over your head" is fear mongering at its best.    Two studies conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratories put actual air monitors on employees in bars and restaurants where smoking was allowed.

No statistics, no hypotheses, actual testing of blood, urine and saliva and they found that these workers inhaled the equivalent of six cigarettes per year.

The same results, using the same method,  were repeated for a third time by researchers in Europe.   That amount is harmless.  The dose makes the poison.  Mr. Klotz's claims that smokers expose others to "poison" is an exaggeration of epic proportions meant to influence public opinion.   Comparing asbestos to SHS  is scientifically dishonest in more ways than one.

These spokesmen expect to be taken at face value, using their organizations as clout.  They depend on public unawareness to allow this sort of  manipulation.  All that smokers ask is that we are given a separate section so that we only don't annoy others because the SHS scare is nothing more than a politically, morally motivated farce in an attempt to control a legal activity others do not like.  I will not sit quietly by while they lie to everyone to fulfull their dreams of a smoke-free society.   When they offer you "the truth" demand the facts.

Sincerely,
Audrey Silk
NYC CLASH