On Nov. 7, Ohioans head to the polls to determine the fate of two ballot items on the level of statewide smoking regulations in private businesses.
The presence of a paternalistic state is obviously not a modern development, nor is it solely confined to Ohio. After passing its own indoor smoking ban four years ago, New York City’s health police has now turned its attention to the criminalization of fat. Last week the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene proposed all foods served in restaurants contain no more than 0.5 grams of trans fats per serving.
When exactly did the government begin to see themselves as our parents?
Third Reich era Germany may be a good starting point to this issue, according to historian Robert Proctor’s latest book “The Nazi War on Cancer.”
The Nazi war on cancer, according to Proctor, a strong supporter of smoking restrictions, was essentially a war on all the alleged causes of cancer and the negative influences perpetuating arguably cancerous habits.
Americans are led to believe they are held personally responsible for smoking and drinking-related decisions and consequences.
Third Reich-era Germans also thought they were capable of similar personal responsibility – that is, until the Nazis took their rights away in the name of public health.
“Nutrition is not a private matter,” said one Nazi health manual.
With tobacco, the Nazi’s statist goal of national cohesion conveniently fell in the realm of promoting necessary national health standards.
Thus, the paternal relationship between the German state and tobacco was well grounded by the need for a healthy citizenry, much like 20th century America.
The Germans were among the first to understand the environmental factors in the development of cancer. But, the regulation did not stop there.
With the backing of the scientific community, Hitler’s regime also entered the sphere of regulating habits such as drinking and smoking and promoting behavior such as physical fitness and early childbearing.
Does this sound familiar?
The health police have not been able to identify a quantifiable threshold above which second-hand smoke becomes a public danger. Thus, they have resorted to an outright ban of a legal product.
If the medical community’s standard for smoking legislation is as weak as groups such as SmokeFree Ohio’s, there is nothing stopping further statist incursions into other areas of our personal lives as well.
Second-hand smoke remains only one of many potential airborne dangers, including air cancer risk from mobile sources such as cars, trucks and agricultural equipment. However, choosing political expedience and practicality over substance, the medical community has embraced the wholesale attack on second-hand smoke, while ignoring other risk factors.
Politically, the cigarette smoker is a far easier target than the charcoal used in barbecues or pesticides used in farming or gasoline-powered vehicles favored by freedom-loving Ohioans.
In a manner not much different from their Nazi predecessors, the anti-smoking community has framed the smoking issue as one of a paternalistic state protecting its weak and downtrodden.
Firearms, fat and alcohol have all been the targets of medical analysis identifying possible health risks and accompanying recommended legislative action. This untamed tyranny of the medical community will continue as long as the lay public greets the health community’s legislative pronouncements with tacit acceptance in a manner similar to Third Reich Germany.
The medical community is one of the only groups that enjoys this level of automatic authority. And governments, as their willing accomplices, have long exploited this authority for expansion of powers.
Americans would do best to avoid the politicization of medicine and reject the government’s automatic use of health concerns as edicts for immediate government intervention, absent of concern for private rights. Even the loss of a single liberty would not be worth the resulting initial stepwise descent to the loss of personal liberties.
Sandeep Rao is a first year radiology student. He can be reached at [email protected].
