Sal M. Onella wrote:
"Michael Coslo" wrote in message
...

snip


And yet, I read a book from the late 1800's that stated that smoking
tobacco caused Lung cancer and emphysema, and that chewing it caused
oral and stomach cancer.

We knew. We just didn't listen.

Sure. Even so, I didn't realize the truth was known _that_ far back. But
in the fifties, when I started smoking (briefly, thank goodness) we referred
to cigarettes as cancer sticks and coffin nails. Yet, lots of people
referred to the first Surgeon General's Report (1964?) as "groundbreaking."
Ah ... no!



To be completely fair, they relied on cause and effect, which is to say
that they noticed a lot of people who smoked and chewed ended up with
these diseases.

But deep pockets kept tangling things up until testing came along that
not only showed that they caused the diseases, but the pathways, and
how, and in a 100 percent unambiguous way.

If we were to apply the same rationale and proof to say, falling out of
airplanes at 30 thousand feet, the argument would be " Well, can you
prove that the person died form the fall, or did they perhaps die of
fright on the way down? Can you testify with a certainty that is what
happened? As if the exact mechanism being indeterminate means the
activity should be promoted, when we all know that whatever the exact
cause of death, if you do fall out at that height, it ain't gonna be too
happy of an ending.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -