For those of you who still believe that corporations always have the best interests of Americans in mind, here’s a nice little something from 1984.

(cough) (cough) Bullshit! (cough) (cough)

The copy:
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Second-Hand Smoke:
The Myth
and The Reality.

Many non-smokers are annoyed by cigarette smoke. This is a reality that’s been with us for a long time.

Lately, however, many non-smokers have come to believe that cigarette smoke in the air can actually cause disease.

But, in fact, there is little evidence — and certainly nothing which proves scientifically — that cigarette smoke causes disease in non-smokers.

We know this statement may seem biased. But it is supported by findings and views of independent scientists — including some of the tobacco industry’s biggest critics.

Lawrence Garfinkel of the American Cancer Society, for example. Mr. Garfinkel, who is the Society’s chief statistician, published a study in 1981 covering over 175,000 people, and reported that “passive smoking” had “very little, if any” effect on lung cancer rates among non-smokers.

You may have seen reports stating that in the course of an evening, a non-smoker could breathe in an amount of smoke equivalent to several cigarettes or more.

But a scientific study by the Harvard School of Public Health, conducted in various public places, found that non-smokers might inhale anywhere from 1/1000th to 1/100th of one filter cigarette per hour. At that rate, it would take you at least 4 days to inhale the equivalent of a single cigarette.

Often our own concerns about our health can take an unproven claim and magnify it out of all proportion; so, what begins as a misconception turns into a frightening myth.

Is “second-hand smoke” one of these myths? We hope the information we’ve offered will help you sort out some of the realities.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

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Ad from Time magazine, December 24, 1984