More ranting nonsense from the anti-tobacco cartel.

Reuters, long prostituted to the anti-tobacco doctrine because supported by a pharmaceutical industry only too eager to replace the tobacco industry in the distribution of nicotine, keeps vomiting anti-smoking goo at every opportunity.

This time it reports that "efforts to persuade English mothers-to-be to stop smoking have made no headway in recent years," according to British health officials.

"Despite government campaigns warning of the risks to unborn babies," continues the article (dropping in the meantime the first generic lie about the risks of smoking and pregnancy). "Surveys since 1992 show there has been no drop in the number of pregnant women smoking."

Reuters continues to misinform the public by getting into the specifics:

"Studies show that smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of having a child with a low birth weight" [conveniently forgetting that we are talking about a few grams at worst], and it concludes with a totally false information bang: "...and it is associated with a greater chance of sudden infant death syndrome, or cot death" This is a blatant lie, and it is very unfortunate that a medical magazine got to prostitute science to the point of making false and non-corroborated statements to get a hold of the next round of pharmaceutical advertisements.

The causes of cot death are actually still unknown, and no significant progress has been made in the last few years. It follows that the oft-repeated suggestion of a causal relationship maternal smoking and cot death is a deliberate fraud for the purpose of political propaganda. It is high time that the scientific community -- and its sloppy, trend-driven, and sometimes downright unprincipled media interpreters -- are held morally and legally responsible for their lies to the public.

Perhaps British mothers have developed a healthy scepticism about the health scare of the week.