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What is the meaning of "Leaving aside the philosophical question of whether anyone should have to breathe someone else’s cigarette smoke, the report suggests that the smoke experienced by many people in their daily lives is enough to produce substantial adverse effects on a person’s heart and lungs."?

Recently I've been doing IELTS reading exercises but i am stuck understanding that line.

Here's context from the full article:

It has been calculated that 17 per cent of cases of lung cancer can be attributed to high levels of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke during childhood and adolescence.

A more recent study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) has shown that second-hand cigarette smoke does more harm to non-smokers than to smokers. Leaving aside the philosophical question of whether anyone should have to breathe someone else’s cigarette smoke, the report suggests that the smoke experienced by many people in their daily lives is enough to produce substantial adverse effects on a person’s heart and lungs.

The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA), was based on the researchers’ own earlier research but also includes a review of studies over the past few years.

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    It would help if you pointed to a particular phrase/grammar that was giving you difficulty, and to provide what parts you think you know already in the sentence provided.
    – katatahito
    Commented Jul 12, 2019 at 2:45
  • 2
    What katatahito said. If it helps, ignore everything before the first comma. Read the sentence starting with “The report suggests...”
    – Damila
    Commented Jul 12, 2019 at 3:10
  • It means that smoking is bad for you.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Jul 12, 2019 at 7:30

1 Answer 1

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Leaving aside the philosophical question of whether anyone should have to breathe someone else’s cigarette smoke, the report suggests that the smoke experienced by many people in their daily lives is enough to produce substantial adverse effects on a person’s heart and lungs.

This has the following meaning:

When talking about standing in the cloud of smoke coming from other people smoking, without asking wether it is morally good or bad, studies have some conclusions which suggest that this kind of second-hand smoking which happens every day can be bad on these people's heart and lungs.

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