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January
20, 2006 |
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Junk Science
January 20 -
Consensus grows -
The
ends justify the means is the motto of anti-tobacco. Their end
is the elimination of tobacco, their means include oceans of
"scientific" studies that blame tobacco and secondhand smoke for a
mountain of dead bodies. As time goes by all pretense of
objectivity disappears while scientific standards are trashed.
The Helena study, which claimed a short-lived smoking ban in
that city reduced heart attacks, broke new ground in deception,
quickly followed by the Pueblo study that lamely attempts to tie up
the loose ends of the prior study. These studies my be
anti-tobacco's Waterloo.
Michael Siegel, a tobacco control
advocate, has covered the Helena and Pueblo studies with a critical
eye and now reports that others are echoing his doubts about the
scientific validity of these studies. As one who sympathizes
with many of anti-tobacco's goals Siegel is highly concerned that
shoddy research that marks these studies will boomerang, damaging
the tobacco control movement.
Tobacco TaxesJanuary 20 -
Picking smokers' pockets -
We
have and will be covering the attempt to tack a $2.60 tax on each
pack of cigarettes sold in California as that campaign moves
forward. For now we link to commentary by San Francisco
columnist Jill Stewart who has many of the same objections to this
tax as we but who points out a huge problem with this tax that has
as yet not been discussed.
Straightening Up DrinkersJanuary 20 -
Warm beer -
A
Missouri politician authored a bill that would make it unlawful for
stores to sell chilled beer. Such a law, he says, will cut
down on drunk driving since boozers will eschew the warm suds while
driving. Of course most people who buy a pack of beer want to
take it home and drink it there but inconsideration is the byword of
today's soft, but hardening, neo-prohibition.
Appropriately
his brainwave comes courtesy of fifth-grade student showing once
again that behavior controllers operate with the emotional maturity
of children. |
| Pro Choice Smokers
Newsletter
January 20 -
Latest
Edition Out Now - Anti-tobacco has been very naughty
in Canada and Norway as operatives and ideologues are caught
with their greedy paws in the cookie jar.....Strippers hit
the streets to protest New Jersey's smoking ban. Catch these and others stories from
throughout the world. Check out tobacco and lifestyle
issues in all 50 states.
South CarolinaJanuary 20 -
Smoker Power - We are pleased to link to an organization
in South Carolina that is keeping its eye on tobacco issues in
that state. As legislative sessions begin for the new year
every state will be face anti-tobacco legislation. Smoker
Power will keep residents informed. As a bonus the site
offers information on smoker-friendly restaurants in Charleston,
truly one of America's most beautiful cities.
DiscriminationJanuary 20 -
Disturbing silence -
Denying
smokers employment opportunities, either by refusing to hire
them or by firing them, if they smoke off the job
revealed the ugliness of the anti-smoking movement that
happy-faced anti-smoking operatives work hard to obscure.
Even people who really hate smoking are disturbed by the
prospect of employers controlling the lawful activities of their
employees while on their own time.
We at FORCES have known for a
decade that anti-tobacco has no qualms in ruining people's lives
if they don't bow to the dictates of militant anti-smokers and
are not surprised that the anti-smoking groups are supporting
such an ugly agenda either actively or by their silence.
Michael Siegel fears such callousness bodes ill for the tobacco
control goals he considers legitimate and useful.
We, however, are delighted that
the public is being treated to the intolerance that hides behind
the benign images anti-tobacco hopes to cultivate. We
applaud the radical Action on Smoking and Health's strident
press release castigating CBS news for bringing the job
discrimination to the public. Siegel finds ASH's premature
criticism
inappropriate
and
more than a little odd. | |
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Understanding the Obvious January 20 - How much is too much? -
Although it defies belief anti-tobacco implies that smoking one or
two cigarettes per day is the same as smoking a couple of packs of
cigarettes each day. Great Grandma would have a good laugh at
that whopper even though she disapproved of smoking.
Wanda Hamilton lays out the facts:
A scientific truth is that the dose
makes the poison. That is, The higher the dose, the worse it is; the
lower the dose, the better it is. In fact, some things that could be
nasty in high doses are actually beneficial in low doses.
According to the majority of the
studies on active smoking, there is a dose-response. That means that
for various so-called smoking-related diseases, the problem occurs
most frequently in those who smoke a lot and less frequently in
those who smoke less or smoke not at all. To find a lot of studies
on this, you pretty much have to go back to those in the very early
Surgeon General reports on smoking and health (back to 1964 and
through the 1970s). These early Surgeon General reports claimed
there WAS a dose/response effect, something which is considered
essential by scientists who want to claim a causal effect.
The problem is that most people who
smoke--even many of those who smoke heavily--do not get lung cancer,
for example. But lung cancer occurs more frequently in those who
smoke heavily than it does in those who smoke less or who do not
smoke at all. That's called a dose/response, which counts not only
how heavily one smokes, but how heavily one smokes and how many
years one smokes heavily. One or two cigarettes a day isn't even on
the charts. Generally the figures greater than 40 a day, greater
than 20 a day and sometimes greater than 10 a day are used.
Here is one abstract of a study about
heart and smoking to illustrate dose/response:
Lancet. 1978 May
20;1(8073):1087-8. Related Articles, Links
Cigarette consumption and deaths
from coronary heart-disease
Bain C, Hennekens CH, Rosner B, Speizer FE, Jesse MJ.
There is a positive association
between cigarette smoking and coronary heart-disease (C.H.D.).
In non-fatal myocardial infarction a dose-response relation
persists even after the effects of additional variables have
been controlled for. The relation between cigarette consumption
and deaths from C.H.D. was investigated in a matched-pair
case/control study. The overall simple matched-pair risk ratio
(R.R.) between current smokers and non-smokers was 1.9 (95%
confidence limits 1.5-2.4). For smokers of fewer than 20
cigarettes per day, the R.R. was 1.2; at a level of 21-40
cigarettes per day, the R.R. was 2.3; and for smokers of 41+
cigarettes per day, the R.R. was 4.0. A similar relation was
found after adjustment for additional variables. These results
suggest that the heaviest smokers could halve their risk of
death from C.H.D. by reducing their tobacco consumption to an
intermediate level; and that benefit of a similar order would be
experienced by smokers of 21-40 cigarettes per day who cut down
to less than one pack (20 cigarettes) daily.
PMID: 77378 [PubMed - indexed for
MEDLINE]
Those who try to tell you that 1 to 2
cigarettes a day is very bad for you are not, scientifically
speaking, being credible. The reason some people who are
knowledgeable advise against such light smoking is that they believe
you will start to smoke more and more until you are a pack or two
pack a day smoker. But increasingly there are light smokers and
occasional smokers who remain light and occasional smokers, and this
is driving the anti-smokers nuts. |
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January
18, 2006 |
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| Propaganda
January 18 - News from Italy - Anti-tobacco and its
pharmaceutical partners certainly have several feathers in their
caps. Over the past few years a few European countries have
imposed smoking bans on a populace that didn't want one. In
each case anti-tobacco operatives spin the news outlets with
preposterous tales of declining rates of smokers, marvelous
financial gains for the hospitality industry and improving
health.
Readers of these pages are aware that
anti-tobacco evidence is not the same as actual evidence.
Anti-tobacco is a master of spin but looking beneath their carefully
crafted press releases reveals a different story. Gian Turci,
a resident of Italy, slices and dices his way through the fantasies
constructed by anti-tobacco. What the con artists are doing in
Italy is being done in every country in which anti-tobacco has a
grasp.
Junk Science
January 18 - Pie in the sky claims - In an odd convergence
of events two researchers have released a study that punctures the
falsity that secondhand smoke causes heart disease in nonsmokers at
the same time anti-tobacco is engaged in a massive campaign to build
up support for imposing smoking bans by using discredited studies
that link heart disease with secondhand smoke. While most
smokers and owners of bars and restaurants worry about smoking bans
ruining their businesses or affecting their social lives, Michael
Siegel worries about the effect aggressive, unproven claims have
upon what he considers legitimate tobacco control
concerns. |
| Evidence
January 18 -
ETS and heart disease - Three
years ago two researchers rocked the small world of tobacco
research by issuing their massive study on the effects of
secondhand smoke on nonsmokers. Their study exonerated passive smoke as a health
hazard and exposed anti-tobacco's efforts to prove otherwise a
fraud. Needless to say the two researchers were
demonized by the militant anti-smoking brigade.
Fortunately JE Enstrom and GC Kabat
have not been intimated and continue their quest to educate
the public and policy makers on the real effects of secondhand
smoke. This time they examine secondhand smoke as it
relates to coronary heart disease mortality in the United
States. Their conclusion?
An objective assessment of the
available epidemiologic evidence indicates that the
association of ETS with CHD (coronary heart disease) death in
U.S. never smokers is very weak. Previous assessments appear
to have overestimated the strength of the
association.
Smokers
January 18 -
Still going strong - She
has been smoking for 91 years, gave birth to her youngest
child at 48 and her mind is still as sharp as a tack.
For her 103 birthday Raymunda Chua Maxino is surrounded by
four generations of loving posterity, most of whom have done
extremely well in their native Philippines. Fortunately
she doesn't live in California or New York where she would be
treated like a criminal because she enjoys a
smoke. | |
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January
16, 2006 |
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| Fight
For Freedom
January 16 - Keeping freedom out - Those who wish to
extinguish liberty may, in the short term, snuff out the rights of
smokers and the property owners who wish to cater to them. As
of yet, no government can curtail the efforts of those who
circumvent unjust laws in the pursuit of their happiness. That
doesn't mean the busybodies won't keep on trying.
Junk Science
January 16 -
Defying common sense - Few
scientists believed that a study so flawed as the so-called Helena
study would ever be taken seriously outside the small circle of
anti-tobacco activists who embrace any and all research that comes
to conclusions that forward their agenda. Those legitimate
scientists didn't count on the relentlessness of Helena study
authors nor the passivity of a media that will not recognize garbage
if it was plunged into a trash can. The Helena, and the later
"Pueblo" studies have taken on a life of their own as triggers to
impose smoking bans on a population that hasn't asked for such
"protection."
Michael Siegel, a longtime and respected
advocate for tobacco control, takes apart these studies in a manner
understandable to all. For his adherence to scientific
standards he finds himself
under attack.
One of the attackers is the well-known
anti-tobacco activist Stanton Glantz, himself an author of one of
the studies. As usual the tactic employed is not to address
the criticism but to criticize the critic. Since the easiest,
and most cowardly, method of accusing the critic of being a tool of
big tobacco won't work with Siegel, Glantz employs subtler rhetoric
to cast doubt upon the study doubters. Glantz doesn't score a
hit but
rallies his troops in
an effort to deflect scrutiny of the glaring problems with the
Helena and Pueblo studies. Siegel's efforts are paying off
since the more attention these shoddy studies receive the better for
scientific integrity and the truth.
Tobacco Taxes
January 16 -
Earmarked revenue - Rebuffed
by both the legislature and the citizens of California in his
attempt to bring some sort of fiscal order to a spend-happy state,
Governor Schwarzenegger is embracing the maxim
of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Last week he proposed a
$97-billion general fund budget and a 10-year plan to improve
the state's infrastructure at a cost of $222-billion.
The sky is indeed the limit in California despite its bond rating
being the lowest of the 50 states.
This story by the San Francisco Chronicle performs a
public service by pictorially representing the sources of revenue
that enriches the state's general fund. Of interest is the
contribution the state's high cigarette and tobacco taxes make to
the general fund. A glance at the pie
chart (text
here)
the paper provides reveals that alcohol taxes contribute three times
as much as do tobacco taxes, but the real story is the figures below
the chart.
Over $1-billion of tobacco taxes are
collected from California smokers, a group that anti-tobacco says is
shrinking to nothingness. From that huge wad of cash a paltry
$118-million is deposited into the general fund, just over 10
percent of the take. What happens to the other 90
percent?
Taxpayers will be happy to know that the lion's
share of tobacco taxes goes to rich non-profit corporations such as
the American Lung Association that uses their windfall to "educate"
the public on the dangers of smoking as well as "researchers" such
as those who crank out the endless supply of junk science at the
University of California - San Francisco. A large slice
accrues to the "for the kids" racketeers set up by Rob Reiner who
edify the public by expensive billboard messages advising parents to
love their children. A small fraction of the funds supposedly
makes its way into health care but with sloppy auditing being the
standard in California it's anyone's guess whether any of the
earmarked, non general funds, benefit anybody other than the
well-oiled special interests who passed the special tobacco taxes
that finance the "special funds."
It's a forgone conclusion that Schwarzenegger's
capitulation to the California's culture of irresponsibility and
waste will require some sort of tax increase. A voter approved
initiative tacking a new tax of $2.60 per pack onto
cigarettes won't help since revenue from this new tax, if it is
passed, will be excluded from California's diminishing general
fund. Who will get the money should it pass? Ask the
American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society and the
American Heart Association who are enthusiastically on board the
tax-hike campaign.
Discrimination
January 16 -
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar - Few
pro-freedom folk were surprised when the World Health Organization
late last year self-righteously announced it would no longer employ
smokers. What had taken this corrupt group so long in wrapping
itself in overt intolerance? Who, after all, would want to
work for WHO anyway?
Michael Siegel, himself a tobacco control
advocate, was less flippant and offers here compelling reasons why
WHO, and other organizations and companies that are jumping on the
job discrimination bandwagon, are not only wrong but downright
foolish to assume ownership of people whose lawful conduct off the
job offends the perpetually offended.
The intellectual and moral obtuseness of
the bigots is on display when one rabidly anti-smoker pressure group
publicly endorses WHO's
hatefulness. Like swatting flies Siegel pierces the non
sequiturs and bizarre illogic of an organization that is run
by a lawyer whom one would think was adept at hiding the fact that
he is a fool. |
| Pro Choice Smokers
Newsletter
January 16 - Latest
Edition Out Now - Confusion reigns in Spain as details
of a draconian smoking ban remain unclear.....Despite rolling
back smoking bans in various Minnesota locations the
prohibitionists keep coming back.....The sugar police are let
loose on New York City's diabetics.....Ronald Reagan decreed
that the taxing power of government should never be used to
bring about social change. The social engineers have the
last laugh.....The World Health Organization passes out bogus
and perhaps fatal advise on AIDS, malaria, domestic violence
and sex education. Why should it be believed about
tobacco?
Catch these stories and much more
in this week's edition.
Business
January 16
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Made in China - The
entire world may be smoking Chinese cigarettes if anti-tobacco
has its way in destroying the tobacco industries in the
Western democracies. Instead of kowtowing to the
toothless World Health Organization and its pharmaceutical
partners China, one of the fastest growing economies on earth,
is aggressively beefing up production of its state-owned
cigarette enterprises. One can accuse the Red Chinese of
many things but stupidity isn't one of them. Sensing an
opportunity as the West demonizes its citizens who smoke and
the companies who provide tobacco products, the Chinese will
ruthlessly exploit new territory where once Marlboro
reigned.
Canada
January 16 - Tobacco News - Warren Klass has a
message for his fellow Canadians: Get off your butts,
look at the issues and ask yourself whether the administration
in power is worth retaining. For smokers it should be
clear.
Ethics
January 16
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Conning the rubes - Long
after his 15 minutes of fame evaporated Jeffrey Wigand, the
tobacco company insider who said he brought the industry to
its knees, is still taking his road show to the sticks.
Quite a fall from the glory days when his exploits inspired a
Hollywood movie. These days, at taxpayer expense, the
seedy self-promoter is boring school children with sermons on
the perfidy of the tobacco industry. How novel!
Mixed in with his solipsistic recitations of derring-do and
bravery, Wigand casually passes lies off as facts to his
captive audience.
To keep the record
straight we delve into Wigand's sordid past:
Investigating lies and truth
Inside dope
Anti hero
January 16
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Purposeful deception -
Fresh
from its victory in conning the voters of Washington state
into approving a smoking ban that "protects all workers" from
the supposed hazard of secondhand smoke, a radical
anti-smoking pressure group spreads the same message to the
residents of New Jersey. The problem in both states is
that the smoking ban specifically exempts the powerful
gambling interests that adamantly oppose smoking bans that
effect their interests.
By the logic of
prohibitionists secondhand smoke is hazardous unless it is
inhaled within the confines of a gambling joint. Most
people grasp the contradiction contained within such an
equation so anti-tobacco operatives must omit any reference to
the thousands of workers whose health is at risk after a
smoking ban is imposed.
Straightening Up Eaters
January 16
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Tightening the grasp - The
new year finds Michael Bloomberg, New York City's ϋber daddy
and hyperactive mayor, forging ahead into new zones of
intrusiveness on his quest to shape up the population.
With smoking out of the way, Bloomberg first jumped on the
trans-fats junk science crusade sending out letters to food
service operators "suggesting" that they clean up their
act. Next on his list is tackling portion sizes in the
myriad of eating places that once made the city famous.
Bloomberg envisions the health department teaching
restaurateurs how make a healthy meal. Bring on the
tofu, raw veggies and skim milk!
None of this, of course,
is the purview proper to government but in Bloomberg's mad,
health-obsessed universe individual taste and choice is the
problem and government control is the solution.
Unfortunately the suicidal New York hospitality industry,
which ineffectively and flaccidly fought the smoking ban,
reveals itself as an unwitting stooge for expanding health
department power.
Leaders of the state
restaurant association - who opposed the smoking ban - have
so far supported the health department's dip into
nutritional education, but are eyeing it cautiously.
"It's one thing for
them to recommend, it's another if they start saying, 'You
must do this,'" said Charles Hunt, who heads the
association's New York City office.
Someone with an attention span more
lengthy than a gnat's should remind Mr. Hunt that banning
smoking in restaurants and bars was once "recommended" but, as
night follows day, became the law. There is no
compromise with a man who wants to slit your
throat. | |
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