Jeffrey Hart

Secondhand smoke is not harmful to human health, Jeffrey Hart claims in the following viewpoint. He argues that a 1993 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report claiming that inhalation of secondhand smoke causes three thousand deaths per year was based on corrupt science. Further, tests on 173 bartenders and waiters failed to show any ill effects from secondhand smoke, he claims. Hart also contends that a ten-year World Health Organization (WHO) study of twenty-one countries found no connection between secondhand smoke and cancer. Jeffrey Hart is a senior editor for the National Review and a syndicated columnist.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Jeffrey Hart, what did the EPA do when it did not get the expected results from secondhand smoke studies?
2. What harm is antismoking zealotry doing, in Hart’s opinion...