preserving your right to employ dubious statistics

The great state of Oregon, called "maverick" to the point of cliché, may soon join the growing ranks of the smoke-free.

"It's time for legislators to step up to the plate and pass a law that protects all Oregonians from secondhand smoke," says Tabithia Engle of the Tobacco-Free Coalition of Oregon, which includes groups such as the American Heart Association and American Cancer Society.

In 2001, the Legislature passed a measure that outlawed smoking in businesses but exempted bars, taverns, bar areas inside restaurants, bowling alleys and bingo halls in most places. More than 35,000 people work in those establishments, and Engle says the surgeon general's report makes it clear that their health is being put at risk by exposure to secondhand smoke.

The report, released June 27, corroborates what many health experts and anti-smoking activists have argued for years: that even minimal exposure to secondhand smoke can cause severe health problems, including heart disease and lung cancer.

Except the report did no such thing.

Of course, it's not the first time antismoking advocates have used junk science to prop up paternalistic public policy.