Cochrane 2007 Review Masquerade on ““Waterpipe”™ Smoking Cessation” (Wasim Maziak, Thomas Eissenberg, Kenneth Ward) Is Summertime Blues !

COMMUNIQUE (29 October 2007):

"The Cochrane 2007 Review Masquerade on ““Waterpipe”” Smoking Cessation (by Wasim MAZIAK, Kenneth WARD and Thomas EISSENBERG), its By-Products and the Suspect Unbalanced Focus on ““Waterpipe”” Smoking vs. Cigarette Smoking"

QUOTATIONS:

"I'm gonna take two weeks, gonna have a fine vacation; I'm gonna take my problems to the United Nations [...] Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do; But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues"
(Eddie Cochran, rock’n’roll singer of the fifties, Summertime Blues) LISTEN AND WATCH SUMMERTIME BLUES HERE !

"The Cochrane Library contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. It includes reliable evidence from Cochrane and other systematic reviews, clinical trials, and more. Cochrane reviews bring you the combined results of the world’s best medical research studies, and are recognised as the gold standard in evidence-based health care." (The Cochrane Library)

NEW FINDINGS: World ““Waterpipe”™ Experts” ready to envisage Bupropion (Zyban) for Treatment of “Waterpipe”™ “Addicts” !

also: "Evidence-based information about waterpipe’s addictive and harmful properties should be developed and disseminated in order to deglamourise and denormalise its use".

THE BIG QUESTION: "Deglamourise" and "denormalise" hookah, narghile and shisha or the cumulating related pseudo-science funded by US tax-payers' millions of dollars ?

More in: FULL COMMUNIQUE HERE (includes translation into French). Once again, hidden conflicts of interest in a "gold standard" (Cochrane claims this) "study", meta-errors in a high-sounding meta-analysis (by Neergaard and coll.), etc., etc., etc.

READ ALSO: Healthy brave emerging counter-literature from great academics of the world:

1) Pr Carl P. (Alberta). Warning: Anti-tobacco activism may be hazardous to epidemiologic science. Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations 2007 (22 Oct);4:13.
http://www.epi-perspectives.com/content/4/1/13 (full text free)

2) Pr James E. (California). Defending legitimate epidemiologic research: combating Lysenko pseudoscience. Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations 2007 (10 Oct);4:11
http://www.epi-perspectives.com/content/4/1/11 (full text free)

3) Pr Michael S. (Boston). Is the tobacco control movement misrepresenting the acute cardiovascular health effects of secondhand smoke exposure? An analysis of the scientific evidence and commentary on the implications for tobacco control and public health practice. Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations 2007 (10 Oct);4:12
http://www.epi-perspectives.com/content/4/1/12 (full text free)

See also the tremendous sites of the above authors:

The Rest of the Story:Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary (Pr Michael S., Boston)

Scientific Integrity Institute (Pr James E., California)

The Tobacco Harm Reduction project (Pr Carl P., Alberta)


4) POWERFUL BOOK written by two professors from Tel Aviv Universities: Hanan F. and Reuven D.: A Critique of Nicotine Addiction. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.

A key-book to understand why the dependence on hookah is so mysterious. Note: often censored. This book concludes that "on present evidence, there is every reason to reject the generally accepted theory that nicotine has a major role in cigarette smoking. A critical examination of the criteria for drug addiction demonstrates that none of these criteria is met by nicotine, and that it is much more likely that nicotine in fact limits rather than facilitates smoking." ORDER HERE

Image: courtesy of Buddy Holly Live

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 !