The Manifesto of the Observatory on Hookah and Health

> As you browse this site, you will see that we are not very fond of euphemisms. We call a spade, a spade and a flawed study, a flawed study; a serious scientific error, a serious scientific error (and never a “misrepresentation”, especially when public health is at stake); an act of plagiarism/piracy, an act of plagiarism/piracy; scientific misconduct, scientific misconduct; a “pire-reviewed” study a “pire-reviewed”(*) study; a lie a lie; a good study a good study.

> We do not abide by the Omerta (the code of silence within the Mafia) visited on these questions of public health by some biomedical journals (**) and their “pire-reviewers” (be the latter conscious or ignorant of what a hookah is) and a wing of the public mass media. We are convinced that, like the "War On Drugs" (see Ethan Nadelmann), the neo-puritan crusade against the “Peace Pipe” is doomed to fail not without bringing out extremely serious consequences. Warlike methods are definitely not adapted to cope with a public health concern.

> We are anti-prohibitionnists (like John Marks). For us, Tobacco Control means in the first instance the control over the quality of products (cigarettes, cigars, etc). This implies a systematic decriminalisation of harm reduction solutions (Eclipse cigarette, Swedish SNUS, No-carbon monoxide hookah, etc).

> Our favorite motto for prevention is “Breathe is Life”. We also like “Hookah smoking is not an innocent habit”. However, we strongly reject: “Hookah smoking is MORE dangerous than cigarette smoking”, put forward by individuals and organizations defending dubious interests.

(*) This is a pun as “pire” is a French homonym of “peer” and means “worst” or, here: “very badly” (Read this post for instance)...(**) See a Code of Conduct to which most of them don't stick (at least in this field of research).

######### ADDED MATERIAL Sept 22, 2008 #########

PARIS MANIFESTO (September 22, 2008) [from The Sacred Narghile]

Once a mere cultural resource (2000-2004), this site [the above mentioned one] was, little by little, led to offer a tribune to those brave scientists who dare expose the growing pseudo-science (“1 hookah=200 cigarettes” “sweep-it-under-the-carpet” so-called ““waterpipe””™ “science”) and whose now open objective is PROHIBITION. We consider prohibition of smoking as antithetic to the spirit of world major religions (Taoism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Communism, Judaism, Christianity, etc.), particularly the 2nd and 5th ones. Against this new pseudo-scientific obscurantism, we invite you to RESIST in the field: on campuses, hookah lounges, etc. WE HAVE WON THE BATTLE in France where hookah lounges have stayed open thanks to our friend’s debunking of the great fraud about “passive smoking” (which was already a fraud in relation with cigarette smoking...)[2009 Study]. We are also firmly committed to fight those who shamelessly promote, in the absence of any evidence and sound study, the pharmacological treatment of supposedly “hookah addicts” (read here).


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