I'm just curious if there's any science behind this at all, because frankly the numbers look like bunk to me.

"Bunk" that's convinced every major medical organization, US and otherwise, that secondhand smoke is a problem. You're making an extraordinary claim. Please provide extraordinary evidence. There is little burden of proof on me, given that I'm making a claim that is supported with such unanimity by organizations with such clout.

You're telling me with the vast amount of people in this country daily exposed to second hand smoke there's a whopping 3400 lung cancer deaths? That's incredibly low...

Not really. Cervical cancer kills about 3,900 people per year in the US, yet the vaccine for HPV was (correctly) heralded as huge news earlier this year, and will likely become mandatory for young women (starting in Michigan, but likely to go on nationwide), barring unexpected success from the resistance from the religious right. 3,400 deaths above baseline, from a preventable cause, is plenty enough to involve the government.

The 20,000+ figure includes all deaths above baseline (heart disease, etc.), and there's only about 10-15 things that kill more than 20,000 people per year. (For comparison, America sees 18,000 homicides and 14,000 HIV deaths per year.) And very few of them are easily classified as preventable deaths.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com