The conservatives are more sympathetic to this message, partly because they are more sympathetic to business and markets, and more suspicious of bureaucracies. So it's divided along political lines. The Wall Street Journal and The Economist have articles all the time pointing out that these scares are mostly hype. But you rarely see them in most newspapers or magazines. It's too bad it has become political.
Tobacco is a disaster.
It causes a third of cancer and a quarter of heart disease. We have some evidence that male smokers are damaging their sperm. If you don't get enough folic acid from your veggies, we see increased damage to the DNA of sperm. We also find the sperm count goes down markedly in rats when they are depleted of folic acid. It's like irradiating themselves.