Blogger Michael Siegel (a physician with twenty years experience in the tobacco control field, and a believer in the negative health effects of ‘passive smoking’) has this to say:

Today I am revealing an important new finding in my investigation of the source of the widespread claim being made by anti-smoking groups (the count is now up to 68) that a single, acute exposure to secondhand smoke causes hardening of the arteries and heart attacks in nonsmokers. It turns out that three major anti-smoking organizations – the American Cancer Society, the International Union Against Cancer, and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids – urged anti-smoking groups to increase the emotional appeal of the secondhand smoke health hazard message by communicating to the public that secondhand smoke can virtually instantly cause hardening of the arteries and heart disease (a point which is clinically impossible – since it takes years for atherosclerosis and heart disease to develop).

Well. Well. Well.

Hat-tip: Reason.