An Emerging Deadly Trend : Waterpipe Tobacco Use…

Watch carefully the photograph and try to find the error. Can you see it now. Bravo, you’re no booby... Yes, Sir, that smoke ain’t that of a hookah but of a cigarette ! (not to mention the fact that no smoke rises from the bowl of a lit hookah. And these "experts" pretend to raise our awareness about "sidestream smoke" ! You're telling me !)

So, this is a fake image aiming at deceiving, once more, the public (See also similar strategy HERE and a reaction Letter by Anna Edwards) You can this way grasp the inner nature of this new anonymous expert report (*): just as erroneous and flawed as the multi-expert WHO expert report on waterpipe tobacco smoking ("advisory note" in WHO jargon). Prevalent endogamy in the field of hookah studies suggests that perhaps some of the selected experts for the preparation of both reports are the same.

(*) Discussion on the Observatory on Hookah and Health postponed unless the American Lung Association asks its Critic to review it before publising it again. These are the eternal laws of science: debate and controversy, no ?

MYTHS SURROUNDING THE HOOKAH OR MYTHOLOGY OF HOOKAH EXPERTS ?
By actually citing K.C. in the report (a thing that any independent researcher should have done for years now), the authors thought that they would avoid this way any new critique from him. This stratagem pitifully failed. Not only they misquoted him but he was, on purpose, cited in the non-scientific literary “Background/history” section of the report, not in the so-called high-sounding “State of the Science” one. Can’t you see why ? Because this holy section is mainly “reserved” for the 4 world gods: Thomas EISSENBERG, Alan SHIHADEH, Kenneth WARD, Wasim MAZIAK ! Come on, give a bow you hookah smoking quakers ! Or bring down these idols if you have the guts (be you students, researchers or journalists worthy of these names) !

And these four worldwide worshipped experts (1), also authors of the erroneous WHO report, call this kind of new stuff (including that published by their followers Monique CHAAYA, Hala TAMIM, Rima AFIFI-SOWEID, etc.)(2) “Peer-Reviewed” "Good Science" on which "no controversy" is possible... Really ? Is this a diktat for Reviewers ?

One of these researchers, who heads the US-Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies , was even granted a WHO medal for this (not a joke; discusssion postponed).

(1-a) Just one example: Shihadeh A, Azar S. A closed-loop control "playback" smoking machine for generating mainstream smoke aerosols. J Aerosol Med. 2006 Summer;19(2):137-47. And previous studies. A full 12 page critique of this study and previous ones is available (publication pending censorship "clearance").

(2) Just one example: E-Letter to the Editor: “Measuring Real Exposure to Narghile (Hookah, Shisha) Smoke and other Concerns Related to Public Health”. European Journal of Public Health 2006 (Jul 2). A critical analysis of: Tamim H, Akkary G, El-Zein A, El-Roueiheb Z, El-Chemaly S. Exposure of pre-school children to passive cigarette and narghile smoke in Beirut. European Journal of Public Health 2006 (May 4): 4 pages. http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/eletters/ckl043v1#18

(1-b) Just one example: Serious Errors in this Study. Tobacco Control 2004 (2 Dec). A critical analysis of the following study: Maziak W, Ward KD, Afifi Soweid RA, Eissenberg T. Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic. Tobacco Control 2004; 13: 327-333.
http://tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/13/4/327

BEWARE: you will also read there (perhaps the most popular page of the Tobacco Control journal…) a recent posting entitled “Failure to declare competing interest”. It relates to K.C.’s involvement in (Hold your Breath !) the No-Carbon Monoxide World Harm Reduction Hookah Project, in fact the most serious response to the growing concerns stemming from Public Health (and particularly regarding the infamous hookah lounges). Unfortunately, Public Health has been hijacked by a group of researchers (discussion postponed for now). However, our duty is to free it.

KC’ detailed reply was immediately rejected by the Editor of the above journal but will be soon published on the Observatory on Hookah and Health or on The Sacred Narghile site so you can contemplate the whole plot. As more and more people begin to understand now, this is how research on hookah (narghile, shisha) smoking has been going for the last years: censorship, blackout, plagiarism, embargo, and now defamation...

[CONT. HERE]

Note that the only response of these “experts” to the numerous scientific critiques (browse this site) of their studies is libel. And the “evidence” that these (rather embarrassing) critiques would be “wrong” is (Hold your Breath once again!) that… its author has been advocating for harm reduction in the field of hookah smoking. Case made. Laugh ! or cry over the intellectual and scientific misery of these “experts” and their blind followers.

AND, FINALLY, DON'T FORGET TO DOWNLOAD NOW THE SUPER-SCIENTIFIC A.L.A. REPORT ON WATERPIPE. READ, LAUGH, CRY OR SUE THEM:
www.lungusa2.org/embargo/slati/Trendalert_Waterpipes.pdf (accessed March 19, 2007)

Note: an alert story sent to us by a friend of ours

YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH and HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe", Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there !