Even though I have had to stop smoking myself, I must support Michaelr in his HEALTH NAZI stance. In the US, whenever a scientific issue becomes politicized, laboratory whores come out of the woodwork with findings supporting whichever side pays the best. They're not completely off the mark with tobacco, I think, but let me give you an example of what can happen. During the heighth of the Hippie LSD craze, there was a reports, sometimes one a week, warning that the children of LSD users would suffer genetic damage and probably brain damage as well. Look around you. Where are they? Was the entire scientific establishment wrong? No, just venal and prejudiced. We haven't heard the last word on tobacco. Unless things change, we never will.

PS. My German and French friends tell me that the concensus there is that Americans are mad.