Should American's be allowed to smoke electronic cigarettes in businesses?

[fordy]

SamuelRSmith said:

fordy said:

Carcinogens are not about receiving x amount of dosage over time. All it can take is one carcinogen to cause a cancer. It's more like a constant gamble than anything.

Short answer, the less carcinogens in the air, the better. Exposure time has nothing to do with it.

Doesn't his statement still stand? If, going by his example, you are surrounded by smoke once every six months, you're still so unlikely to develop cancer from it, versus being exposed to it every day. If you gamble once every six months, you win less often than if you gamble every day.

 

Difference is, in this gamble, "winning" = dying.

Yes, but in some cases, all it takes is a few days exposure to a carcinogen. The odds ARE lower, but all it takes is one carcinogenic particle to mutate a cell enough to wildly replicate while maintaining immunity against the body's foreign intruder defense mechanisms.

Putting it in the original sense stated is like saying you cannot win the lottery unless you've been buying lottery tickets for at least 20 years...

There have been cases of people winning the lottery on their first lottery ticket. The same is true in this sense.