Science, policy, and ethics: the case of environmental tobacco smoke.
The successful campaign against smoking will long be celebrated as a landmark achievement of public health. Recently, a prominent component of this campaign has been the portrayal of environmental tobacco smoke as a major health risk. To this day, however, the scientific basis for this later contention remains speculative. The elevation of heuristic hypotheses into official precepts raises an intriguing ethical question: Should a claim of best intentions justify representing conjecture as scientific knowledge in public policy formulation?
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Health Policy Center, Bethesda, MD 20816-1016, USA.
D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004989:Ethics; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology; D009812:Odorants; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States
D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution