Just recently, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a press release about secondhand tobacco smoke. The U.S. Surgeon General says that even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can trigger a heart attack and inhaling even a tiny amount of tobacco smoke can cause cancer.

In response to this press release, Dr. Michael Siegel*, a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University, says that “it is simply not true that even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cardiovascular disease,” and that “inhaling the smallest amount of tobacco smoke does not lead to cancer.”