Halooka E-Hookah, You Barefaced Liar ! Keyfa Haluka ?(*) Unashamedly Singing Prohibitionist Tunes ?

(*) “How are you” (in Arabic) ?

“TripleHalo Ltd has launched the Halooka™, The World’s first electronic Shisha in February 2010. The Halooka™ is an innovative healthier redefinition of the traditional shisha (sometimes knows as a hookah or water pipe). The Halooka™ uses an electronic atomisation process and mechanism to produce water based vapour as opposed to harmful ‘burn’ smoke associated with the traditional shisha [cont…]”.

A communiqué that begins with a lie (of course, this is not the first Electronic hookah!) immediately followed by another lie (the regular shisha would produce “harmful ‘burn’ smoke”!). Too much, this is too much !

This isn't all. Listen to other claims:

“[…] Zair Al-Beyerty, inventor and TripleHalo Ltd CEO, said “We fully support the principle of a ban on smoking and harm reduction […]”

Observatory: ????

“Research on the traditional shisha has shown that it can be significantly more harmful than a regular cigarette. Findings show the traditional shisha not only retains all the carcinogens of cigarette’s ‘burn’ smoke but also adds higher levels of carbon monoxide and a separate set of carcinogens from the use of burning coals to keep the nicotine flowing”.

Yeah, man, 1 hookah is equivalent to 200 to 900 cigarettes. We already know this song…

The last straw ! : “The cartridge components consist of natural ingredients which include:

Nicotine: Natural extract from the tobacco plant. (Pure nicotine is far less harmful when not burnt and delivered through the 100+ chemicals associated with burning as in the traditional Shisha and cigarettes)”

“While mindful of and supporting the smoking ban as well as the need for a clear harm reduction policy on smoking in general [...]”.

Observatory: Why do you need to hop on the prohibitionists bandwagon, sing their tunes and hunt with them ?

Did’nt you realize you parrot, that :

-E-cigarettes are certainly interesting devices because many cigarette smokers are hooked and compelled to inhale a highly concentrated smoke many times a day. Of course, given the chemical composition of that smoke, this is not good for health if repeated too often. This is why the carbon-heated glycerol Eclipse cigarette, imitating the hookah, has, one decade ago, represented a great step forward. Expectedly, antismoking researchers made everything they could to almost banish it. > Now, if hookahs are not that addictive, in which realm does the benefit of a E-Hookah lie?

-Vaporizing nicotine and flavours is what a regular hookah does, with no chip or batteries…

-Then, why the heck does a E-hookah use water if there is no crap to filter out ? Just for the gurgling sound ? Oh come on !

-“Harm reduction”, said you ? Didn’t you read the news that regular “Hookah is the pre-Colombian harm reduction method of smoking whose continuous growing popularity across the world, for one decade now, is also a backlash effect of the vehement anti-cigarette campaigns of the past two decades” ?

Finally, is this exotic knick-knack, this expensive toy, powered by huge batteries, environment-friendly ? Regular hookahs, with natural charcoal and natural tobacco, are…

CONCLUSION

Unless an apology and correction, based on non Haram-Treif Science (*), are published by Triplehalo (the company behind the product), the Observatory will keep saying: avoid these people and their gimmicks !

(*) “Haram” and “Treif” science ? … What’s this ?

RELEVANT READINGS

The Observatory on Hookah or Health is not principled against E-smoking. It only demands scientific honesty and integrity, as reflected in the below links:

E-Letter on E-Hookah published in the E-British Medical Journal

[Added later: Is the Electronic “Healthy Shisha” Really Healthy ? SciTopics 2010]

Ashtray Blog and E-Cigarettes

A few comments on recent articles on E-cigarettes published by worldwide renowned antismoking researchers (Jack Henningfield, Ghazi Zaatari and Thomas Eissenberg):

Simon Chapman’s Lost Battle of “Tobacco Control”. Wretched Intent to Mobilize Muslims & Jews Against the Tobacco Industry (Australian Pig Blood Story)

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!

Simon Chapman’s Lost Battle of “Tobacco Control”. Wretched Intent to Mobilize Muslims & Jews Against the Tobacco Industry (Australian Pig Blood Story)

[Update Apr 22: content unchanged. Only the previous image (cover of the antismoking "Tobacco Control" journal April issue) was replaced with that of a book (left) by Gilles Chatelet [translated title: "Living and Thinking like Pigs"] which was deemed most relevant. By the way, this philosopher has nothing against those nice animals... Here's a presention of his work for the happy ones who can read French: "une réflexion sur la "Contre-Réforme néo-libérale", une démystification, l’analyse des présupposés scientistes (et ô combien " réalistes ") d’une idéologie dont la pensée n’est pas le point fort. Comment en est-on arrivé là ? [...] Châtelet propose aujourd’hui une philosophie de combat qui fasse "plus de vagues et moins de vogue". [more with Fluctuat]"

The Daily Telegraph (March 30, 2010): Cigarettes may contain pigs blood. From AAP (Australia)

In this press item extensively quoting from him, Simon Chapman pathetically scares Muslims and Jews about the “undisclosed” presence of pig element in cigarettes…

Excellent ! That animal haemoglobin may have been used here or there in some cigarette filters (although it is apparently very rare and limited to some places in Greece) to trap carbon monoxide or other harmful chemicals is not the problem here.

Some commentators have decided that it would be an April Fool's Day joke…

This isn't our opinion. We think that the timing is likely more related to a historic speech in The Hague (March 15, 2010) in which an independent non-antismoking researcher found, “further to numerous in-depth peer-reviewed critiques of biomedical publications (notably the WHO expert report)”, […] that “Prohibition based on shoddy science also collides with the holy teachings of a great religion of the world. The latter commands that good sound science should be sought from the cradle to the grave. Consequently, he invites States, particularly those for which this religion is central, to collectively withdraw from the WHO FCTC (Framework Convention for Tobacco Control) and demand accountability (International Court of Justice)”.

Of course, that shoddy science is, to a great extent, that published in “Tobacco Control”, the main world antismoking journal whose Editor-in-Chief for one decade or so has been Simon Chapman himself. See last issue (not another April Fool’s Day joke !)

This April issue contains many interesting papers offering a foretaste of the so strongly desired Prohibition. It is heralded by an editorial on Electronic cigarettes written by Jack HENNINGFIELD (USA) and Ghazi ZAATARI (US-American University of Beirut), two prominent WHO TobReg experts who stress the necessity for procrastinating another 10 years or so because ENDDs (new speak for electronic cigarettes) might be very hazardous in their opinion… Therefore, they suggest in their WHO jargon an “emerging science foundation for policy” so you folks can be impressed by the scientific nature of the procrastination… Case made !

In view of his interests in US Big Big Pharma products, Jack HENNINGFIELD’s not very enthusiastic opinion about the Chinese gadget is understandable, isn’t it ?

However, why, would you ask, is Ghazi ZAATARI’s analysis likely to be biased ? Simply because the proportion of cigarette smokers in Lebanon is so huge (around 60% of the total population). This means that the great hazard for the pharmaceutical industry is that those Eastern folks adopt the Chinese gadget instead of the nicotine inhalers, patches and gums, and Chantix… Understood ? If not, browse this site to see the similar tactics in their “scientific” war against the ““waterpipe””…

Note: Last month, in the same “Tobacco Control” antismoking journal, the One Million E-cigarette users in the USA could find a rocket science study by Thomas Eissenberg whose title is everything but unclear: “Electronic nicotine delivery devices: ineffective nicotine delivery and craving suppression after acute administration”

Interestingly, the previously mentioned independent non-antismoking researcher who went Holland to deliver his speech against Prohibition said that E-cigarettes are now under the same fire (that is, the so-called “peer-reviewed” “studies”) led by the same people who have attacked the hookah for almost one decade now.

Not sure ? Let’s see:

Jack HENNINGFIELD and Ghazi ZAATARI are the WHO TobReg experts who have ““peer-reviewed”” the infamous WHO flawed report on ““waterpipe””™ smoking.

Ghazi ZAATARI has personally selected the experts to be appointed for the task of preparing that document (source: US-American University of Beirut Bulletin dated Feb 2006, Vol7, 45)

The first "objectively" “selected” expert was Alan SHIHADEH (who is affiliated with the same institution, the US-American University of Beirut…) and the second one was Thomas EISSENBERG… What a coincidence…

The more the merrier… D’you kow what ? All these people are members of Globalink !

This is not all. The “Tobacco Control” antismoking journal is also famous for having published a “reference” (certainly it has been one for the crowds of blind or parroting researchers who cited it) review on ““waterpipe””™ authored by Wasim Maziak and co-authored, among others, by Thomas Eissenberg. As expected, the “reference” review is a great fraud and contains tremendous scientific errors:

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.

See critique of main errors THERE

Most scientific journals would have retracted such a big stain in their editorial content. “Tobacco Control” did not because antismoking ideology is superior to science.

CONCLUSION

This Autralian story about pig blood in cigarette filters is rubbish and the Observatory on Hookah or Health has decided to grant the “Haram Science” and “Treif Science” Award to Simon Chapman !

“Haram” and “Treif” ? … What’s this ?

Bad science, pseudo-science, are illicit in Religion !

RELEVANT READINGS

On Simon CHAPMAN and the world antismoking Globalink octopus (WHO, WHO TFI, WHO TobReg, Prohibition, etc.) : see “A Global Prison ?” (interview with historian of antismoking)

On his antismoking journal : Comfits of Interest, WHO TobReg, Globalink, Tobacco Control, etc. : Double Standard and/or Hypocrisy ?

On Jack HENNINGFIELD and his so big connections with Big Pharma that (poor man), he “forgets” to mention them…, see that ARTICLE:

On Ghazi ZAATARI, see Narghile, Sex and the US-American Univer-City of Beirut... Tobacco Control, Prostitution and the City of Bombay...

Read also: “E-Cigarettes, Hookah (Shisha, Narghile) and E-Hookah”. A comment on an article published in the British Medical Journal (Flouris AD, Oikonomou DN. Electronic cigarettes: miracle or menace ? BMJ. 2010 Jan 19;340:c311. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c311)

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 !