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Book Review
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Volume 340:572-573 February 18, 1999 Number 7
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For Your Own Good: The anti-smoking crusade and the tyranny of public health

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By Jacob Sullum. 338 pp., illustrated. New York, Free Press, 1998. $25. ISBN 0-684-82736-0.

Within the animal kingdom only one species, Homo sapiens, actively seeks to inhale smoke. All other species instinctively flee it. Cigarette smokers inhale some 4000-odd chemicals, including dozens known to be carcinogenic, cardiotoxic, or teratogenic. The typical smoker self-administers about 300 doses of this chemical stew on a daily basis, or more than 5 million doses over a lifetime of smoking. Approximately half of all lifelong smokers succumb as a consequence.

Jacob Sullum has written For Your Own Good in homage to the decision-making rights of the smoke-seeking species, if not necessarily its decision-making prowess. Sullum's core message is evident . . . [Full Text of this Article]




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