Mind Boggling Epidemiology and Geopolitics ! New US-Syrian ““Waterpipe””™ Study in IJTLD Regards Israel as Part of the Arab World !

Mind-Boggling Epidemiology and Geopolitics ! New US-Syrian ““Waterpipe””™ Study in “Peer-Reviewed” International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Regards Israel as Part of the Arab World and Narghile Would be a New Thing in the Latter !

NEW STUDY: Almerie MQ, Matar HE, Salam M, Morad A, Abdulaal M, Koudsi A, Maziak W. Cigarettes and waterpipe smoking among medical students in Syria: a cross-sectional study. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2008 Sep;12(9):1085-91.

QUOTES
“The recent emergence of waterpipe use in Syria and other Arab countries, and its associated claims of reduced harm, represent a new threat for tobacco control efforts in this region. Today young men and women in the Arab world are increasingly using waterpipes, a habit that they view as fashionable.10-12”

Apart from the blunder by so-called Syrians that ““waterpipe””™ would be a new thing in the region (Laugh or Cry !), d’you know what, folks ? One of the cited references (number 11) is a study by Varsano S, Ganz I, Eldor N, Garenkin M. published in Hebrew in the Harefuah journal (2003 Nov;142(11):736-41, 807). The translated title is “Water-pipe tobacco smoking among school children in Israel: frequencies, habits, and attitudes”. The authors of the cited study are actually from Israel and the study was carried out there (Meir General Hospital, Sapir Medical Center, Kfar Saba)…. Now, and very amazingly, for these Syrian researchers, Israel is a part of the Arab world....

And since we are discussing this point, let’s take the opportunity to pay a renewed tribute to two professors from Tel Aviv who have debunked the huge “Nicotine Addiction” fraud published in 1988 by the Surgeon General (USA): Pr Hanan F. & Pr Reuven D. (Tel Aviv)

WHAT ELSE ?
This US-Syrian survey is biased (no news so far, Humm…):
1. They say they have used a “standardized” ““waterpipe””™ questionnaire. By the way, how d’you say ““waterpipe””™ in Arabic ? Genevieve’s French/English/Arabic dictionary has only got one 3 entries: “narghile”, “hookah” and “shisha”. No such word as ““waterpipe””™ can be found in her guide. Perhaps obsolete... God, how did they manage with their survey there among people ?
2. They say they asked medical students about their use of cigarettes and narghile. Can’t you see where the bias lies ? If a medical student may smoke cigarettes in classrooms (if permitted), corridors or lecture halls, has anybody ever seen Middle East students puffing at the hookah in such places ? Ask any Syrian citizen and (s)he will tell you that they patronise traditional coffee houses there (outside the campus, of course). So, where is the problem ? Even when they become fully-fledged physicians, who believes that they will be smoking the narghile in their practice ?
3. They say that “about three quarters of the respondents considered the water-pipe to be more harmful than cigarettes, with no significant difference between smokers and non-smokers of either type”. And, relish also this: “[…] as more students in our study said that they thought that waterpipe smoking was more harmful than cigarettes, and their belief was not affected by their waterpipe or cigarette smoking behaviour.”

Obviously, the local health propaganda cooked by the US-Syrian Center for ““Waterpipe””™ Tobacco Studies is effective there and is performed in the Arabic language. Unfortunately, for the time being, our Observatory on Hookah or Health cannot be understood by most Syrians because it is not in Arabic ! When it is, wager that this situation gonna change !
The article concludes: “The widespread waterpipe use among students, despite their awareness of its detrimental aspects, should be a clarion call to health authorities in Syria and the Arab world to act rapidly to deal with this eminent epidemic.”

Note: Yes, “eminent” with a “e” (published this way in the study itself !). Therefore, it is an Eminent epidemic soundly analysed by Eminent ““waterpipe””™ experts…
Oh, we also have to inform you that we've been tipped off by independent Syrian doctors that there would be other bias in this survey. You will soon know about it.

CONCLUSIONS
1. A survey based on a “standardized” (sic) questionnaire, just as “standardized” as the US-American University of Beirut’s highly realistic ““waterpipe””™ smoking machine which draws one puff every 17 seconds for a full hour (with the charcoal in the same position).
New Conjuring Trick by US-American University of Beirut’s Illusionists. Tons of Aldehydes Found in Narghile (Hookah, Shisha) Smoke… You’re Dead !
May they be happy since the WHO (World Health Organization) “experts” have blessed them…
2. This publication contains a renewed attack on Middle Eastern women because they have chosen to smoke narghile and not cigarettes. See recent fear-arousing episode by Wasim MAZIAK in his Call for action:
““Waterpipe””™: Time for Action on Scientific Integrity and Accountability, Sacking, and Paying Back Funding of Useless Biased ““Waterpipe””™ Research
3. What’s all that ? Health Fascism imported in Syria ? Please help us us, Pr PROCTOR:
Robert PROCTOR: Tobacco Control is NOT Tobacco Kontrol. Man Who Forgot “Forgotten” Study by “Forgotten Father of Experimental Tobacco Carcinogenesis"

MOTTOS
!> Syrians of Syria and the World, Stand up and Resist Foreign Interventions in the Name of Public Health!
[added Oct 23] -Prohibitionism of Tobacco is Antithetic to the Cultural (incl. Religious) Values of Your Societies ! Don't Be Ashamd of this Fact but Rather Be Proud of it !
!> Write to your Leaders ! Just Say No to Prohibition and Pseudo-Science !
!> Help your Lebanese sisters and brothers to get rid of health policies based on flawed studies cooked inside the US-American University of Beirut.
!> Syrians and Lebanese, call a spade a spade and a narghile a narghile as you have always done: never a ““waterpipe””™ !
!> Reject Big Pharma interventionism through funding of ““waterpipe””™ multiplying flawed and erroneous studies !

RELEVANT READINGS
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease has recently published a study (*) in which the authors, apart from many serious errors, cite plagiarized material (reference number 5, that is Bertrand DAUTZENBERG and Jean-Yves NAU’ “book”):

(*) Prignot JJ, Sasco AJ, Poulet E, Gupta PC, Aditama TY. Alternative forms of tobacco use. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2008 Jul;12(7):718-27.

>> The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Publishes a Junk Pakistani ““Waterpipe””™ Study and another one Citing a Junk Reference
>> Plagiarism and Flavors. Bertrand DAUTZENBERG, President OFT, Comes Back with a New Definition for Shisha: a ““War to Tobacco” Tobacco Product" !
>> International Journal of Public Health Endorses Multiple Errors by US-American University of Beirut Team. Violation of Biomedical Publication Ethics

The just above mentioned study was:
> Yunis K, Beydoun H, Nakad P, Khogali M, Shatila F, Tamim H (2007). Patterns and predictors of tobacco smoking cessation: a hospital-based study of pregnant women in Lebanon. Int J Public Health 52(4):223-32.
Most of these “prestigious” researchers are from the “prestigious” US-American University of Beirut. They state, among many other errors (no critique allowed, in violation with ethics of biomedical journals) that Tunisia is a country of the Middle East !

Therefore, the ““waterpipe””™ experts, who could not distinguish between a heating and a burning process (WHO report and others), between hookah smoke and cigarette smoke, between smoking products, now show to the world, despite their numerous international contacts and huge networking facilities, that they are dead losses at geography: for Wasim MAZIAK and his colleagues, Israel is part of the Arab world and for Hala TAMIM and her fellow researchers, Tunisia is to be found in the Middle East… Published in pire-reviewed journals...

Image: courtesy of Welovepolo Welovepolo

[note: posted Oct 22, backdated 10 Oct; minor changes on Oct 23]

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