To the Editor:
I am writing in response to Neil Resnick and Juan Carlos Serna's editorial "Butt Out of Dartmouth's Affairs" in the issue of The Dartmouth dated Monday, May 18.
I have come to fully expect wild speculation in The Dartmouth's editorials, but Resnick and Serna's assertion that "four years ago, the prevalence of smoking was not what it is today" prompted me to write anyway. Resnick and Serna fail to provide a single statistic in support of their claim. Instead, their evidence is entirely anecdotal. Let's see; four years ago...
"One could walk out from the side door of McNutt without inhaling a stray cloud of cigarette smoke" (In fact, I did this just the other day).
"The back porch of the Hop was not cluttered with cigarette butts" (Maybe the janitors are slacking off).
"And smokers at parties were forced to step outside to light up" (What parties, exactly, do Resnick and Serna attend? Fraternity parties? Birthday parties? Tea parties?).
And as far as Resnick and Serna's assertion that a 49-year-old local's lung cancer was "no doubt" a result of cigarette smoking, I hope that they enlighten researchers with their groundbreaking understanding of the exact link between carcinogens and cancer.
