Second Hand Smoke Scam

Fox News ^ | October 17, 2003 | Steven Milloy

[lockjaw02]

Ed Sweda from Richard Daynard's anti-smoking group keeps trying to use this as proof ETS caused Dr Hanson's death. He can never back it up in debate when confronted with the facts in the court's transcript.

Besides the lack of autopsy, which the family refused due to religious convictions, the doctor friend of the deceased who accompanied Dr Hanson on this trip and attended his death also testified that he could not definitively ascertain that it was the smoke that caused Dr Hanson's death. Dr Hanson had been known to have experienced reactions to food allergies in the past in the absence of smoke.

Olympic Airways did not let the stewardess testify. Dr Hanson was a seasoned traveler who did not report her attitude and failure to help him find a seat farther away from the smoking section to the head cabin attendant, and he did not attempt to find a seat (or ask anyone to switch with him) for himself when she replied that he could find one on his own. The court also found him partially negligent in his own death.