A February 8, 2006 letter to the editor by Stephen Helfer of Cambridge, MA denounced the agitation in Utah for smoking bans, citing ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan:
The largest study done to date, peer-reviewed and published in the May 17, 2003, British Medical Journal, found no increased risk of lung cancer or heart disease associated with SHS exposure.
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health and author of Smoking Gun: How the Cigarette Companies Are Getting Away with Murder, concurred (New York Post, May 16, 2003), writing that there is no convincing evidence linking SHS to chronic disease. Even Sir Richard Doll, the first researcher to scientifically associate smoking with lung cancer, said that the effects of SHS exposure are insignificant (Asbury Park Press, Jan. 4).