The Herald reported this week that a number of prisoners in Scotland exposed to secondary smoke have lodged cases claiming damages. The first is expected in court in the next few months.
The likelihood that a successful case would result in a series of copycat claims must be food for thought for the Scottish Government. But what would it achieve by defending each claim successfully?: of course it would undermine its own case that 'there is no safe level of secondary smoke' ...
What would you do in the Scottish Government's case?
5 comments:
Di we offer our advice on the issue? Here is a paper from 2010
http://www.crde-unati.uerj.br/renato/ingles.pdf
It seems the Scottish government are in a bit of a trouble over this one, should they pay-out on nothing more than a myth ( a myth they have helped create ) or do they tell the Truth and tell the entire World that passive smoke is Not harmful after all, telling lies can be a costly business in more ways than one.What would ASH advise.
Tug
Scrap the Smoking Ban, ban ASH Scotland and make it compulsory for ALL scientists to sign a declaration of scientific integrity.
MSPs to publicly admit they were WRONG.
Pay up and keep paying up for the next 40 years or so,on every illness or disease that has ever been linked to tobacco, however tenuously and however incorrectly.
http://www.globalink.org/tobacco/docs/ets/Covence.shtml
http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20000203-00
If they so much as query the cause of anything, even the possible risk of anything, WHO and the drugs companies will be down on them like a ton of bricks.
http://www.who.int/inf-pr-1999/en/pr99-04.html
The Scottish Government accepted the verdict, before the case was even thought of.
They might also want to do something about the non-smokering prisoners diet.
I'm sure that they would want to avoid any dubious claims.
"Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants (Solanaceae), predominantly in tobacco, and in lower quantities in tomato, potato, eggplant (aubergine), and green pepper."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/n/nicotine.htm
1992
Method for Cotinine Analysis, which Indicates Amount of Smoke Exposure
http://www.cdc.gov/cdc50/amazing.htm
Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke Widespread - 1996
"Nearly 9 out of 10 non-smoking Americans are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS, or second-hand smoke), as measured by the levels of cotinine in their blood, according to a study conducted by HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."
"The presence of cotinine, a chemical the body metabolizes from nicotine, is documentation that a person has been exposed to tobacco smoke."
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/96news/nrsmoke.htm
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