doubleplusundead

October 22, 2007

Nanny Staters Continuing To Wage War On Smokers

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: it'll all start with smoking, and it won't stop there. This time, a doctor and his kid devised a test to see if a person is smoking and hiding it from their doctor. They took a pulse cooximeter, which is used by firefighters to test for carbon monoxide in the blood, and have devised a way to tell if someone is smoking.

Now, I'm fine with them testing this, if the person in the doctors office is told what the test is and gives full consent. This test, if given without clear consent and awareness of what the test is, is an invasion of privacy along the lines of this story, where Doctors are using children to spy on their parents to see if they own firearms or drink, some of them then chastising parents for their choices, and some even going as far as trying to send police to investigate parents who owned LEGAL firearms!

There needs to be serious change, doctors are becoming far too intrusive, and trying to take on advocacy beyond what they should. I realize that this test is going to lose much, maybe most of its effectiveness by making consent a requisite, but honestly, people don't know that regular smoking is seriously dangerous?

I don't buy it, and I don't buy that people don't know that smoking tobacco introduces carbon monoxide to their body...from the site cigarettewarninglabels.com, it says the following,

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide.

I've seen this on packs of smokes, and other than the very occasional cigar, I don't smoke. So the idea that people don't know that carbon monoxide enters your body when you smoke is ludicrous. This is about outing a behavior that is unhealthy, and unaccepted in society. If a doctor was aggressively prying into someone's sex life when it was clear the patient didn't want to discuss it, we'd be rightly angered. This is no different.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:23 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Hmmm. I don't think this is the doctor's responsibility either.

A test like this might be more appropriate for insurance companies, with knowledge and consent, of course. If you say you aren't smoking but want insurance for cancer, this test might be a condition of the insurance company before agreeing to coverage.

Just a thought...

Posted by: ConservativeBelle at October 23, 2007 06:35 AM (/v6Id)

2 They used a breath test like this at the stop-smoking place we went to. I didn't quit smoking for health reasons. I didn't quit smoking because I was made to feel like a red-headed step-child. I quit smoking because the great State of Texas decided to impose unfair additional taxation on smokers and I refuse to pay them one more cent. I may have quit smoking, but I believe that decision should be made by only one person--the smoker.

Posted by: PattyAnn at October 23, 2007 06:09 PM (QdULz)

In Brazil they put "Smoking causes impotencia" on a pack of Marlboro lights.

That will make a Brazilian think twice.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at October 24, 2007 04:05 PM (pzen5)

4 I'm fine with the surgeon general's warnings, I don't see them as any different than allergy warnings, in fact, we oughta start using that one.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at October 24, 2007 04:16 PM (BYkhK)

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