Hookah Smoking Prophet. The “British Medical Journal” Turns Xenophobic in Article Inspired by Danish “Cartoons”

“An article of the British Medical Journal targets a certain religion for being permissive and even promoting smoking... The heinous metaphor is that of its prophet smoking the hookah...”

"Résumé en français: Le journal médical britannique de référence (British Medical Journal) s'en prend  d'une manière haineuse à une certaine religion qu'il juge trop permissive vis à vis du tabac. La métaphore utilisée est celle de son prophète fumant le narguilé (houka, chicha, shisha)"

Needless to add that no criticism was permitted (Search "totalitarianism" AND "hookah")... 

FULL STORY HERE (in English)

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Waterpipegate and Climategate : Man Made Hookah (Shisha, Narghile, ""Waterpipe"") Side-Stream Smoke and Climate Change

First 150 words (foreword) tapped from the Knol Hotline

“This is a critique of Nancy Daher et al (US-American University of Beirut)’s unethical and highly politicised paper on ““waterpipe”” side-stream smoke, based on the smoking machine operated by Alan Shihadeh (id.)[1] . The right place to discuss a controversial paper containing serious errors and biases is the journal in which it was published. Unfortunately, for political (and not scientific) reasons, this is not always possible. On the very reasons for which this was not permitted, please contact us.

Interestingly, the Atmospheric Environment journal is hosted by the University of East Anglia (School of Environmental Sciences). It is noteworthy that the Climate Research Unit of this institution was recently hacked by individuals who succeeded in revealing how dissenting views are silenced and blocked [2].

“Waterpipegate” refers to one of the other numerous ethical scientific scandals involving the World Health Organisation [3-6] [...]”

Cited References:

[1] Nancy Daher N, Saleh R, Jaroudi E, Sheheitli H, Badr T, Sepetdjian E, Al-Rashidi M, Saliba N, Shihadeh A. Comparison of carcinogen, carbon monoxide, and ultrafine particle emissions from narghile waterpipe and cigarette smoking: Sidestream smoke measurements and assessment of second-hand smoke emission factors. Atmospheric Environment 2010; 44(1): 8-14.

[2] Peter Kelemen (Columbia University's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences). What East Anglia's e-mails really tell us about climate change. Popular Mechanics 2009 (1 Dec). "If scientists attempted to exclude critics' peer-reviewed papers from IPCC reports, this was unethical in my view."

[3] Chaouachi K. A Critique of the WHO's TobReg "Advisory Note" entitled: "Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: Health Effects, Research Needs and Recommended Actions by Regulators. Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine 2006 (17 Nov); 5:17. Doi:10.1186/1477-5751-5-17

[4] Oxman AD, Lavis JN, Fretheim A. Use of evidence in WHO recommendations . Lancet. 2007 Jun 2;369(9576):1883-9.

[5] F. William Engdahl. WHO ‘Swine Flu Pope’ under investigation for gross conflict of interest. Voltaire Non Aligned Press Network 2010 (22 Jan)

[6] Girard M. World Health Organization Vaccine Recommendations: Scientific Flaws, or Criminal Misconduct? Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 2006;11(1):22-3.

Image: Courtesy of Florence Cestac, Metro, 24 Jan 2008


RELEVANT READINGS

Alan Shihadeh, Findings on waterpipe second hand smoke: E-Letter to the BMJ (Oct 20, 2009)


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«Health Debate» Between Maziak and… Maziak ! Renewed Antismoking Media Propaganda by “Journalist” Matt Erickson for The Kansas City Star

Two weeks ago or so, the BBC presented a “debate” over shisha smoking between two antismoking experts: guess whom ? Paul Hooper, regional manager at the Department of Health (UK) vs. Hilary Wareing, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research (UK).

BBC NEWS: Shisha 450 Times Worse than Cigarettes, New Research Reveals. Swine Flu Link Now Established

BBC. UK Shisha Experts 450 More Dangerous for Public Health Than Cigarette Experts. BBC Accused of Gross Exaggeration

Very democratic and well-balanced debate, isn’t it ?

Then, we have now Matt Erickson for the Kansas City Star, offering a “Health Debate” between Wasim Maziak and Wasim Maziak himself !

Hookah trend growing among young people

For your information, this expert is one of the main authors of the WHO erroneous and biased report on hookah smoking (read well, particularly the Comments section published almost 2 years later to understand that he had not declared his authorship at the beginning...)

We also had not so recently the case of the antismoking journal Addiction (Editor-in-Chief Robert West) which became famous for a the tribune it offered to Maziak. It had the cheek to label it (don’t laugh) “For Debate” ! A debate between whom and whom ? Between a patented antismoker and another patented antismoker of course !

““Waterpipe””™: Time for Action on Scientific Integrity and Accountability, Sacking, and Paying Back Funding of Useless Biased ““Waterpipe””™ Research

CONCLUSION

Antismoking journals, biomedical (as Addiction in this case) or popular (The Kansas City Star) or even the BBC, lie when using the word “debate”. They can't allow any scientific debate. And keep in mind their permanent rant about violation of "democracy" and "freedom of press" in remote countries. Rubbish !

RELEVANT READINGS

ASH (Action on Smoking and Health). ““ Shisha 200 times worse than a cigarette” say Middle East experts””. 27 March 2007 (prepared by Martin Dockrell)(accessed 13 June, 2008). Interview with Wasim Maziak and Alan Shihadeh:

“Three leading experts from across the Middle East have warned that excluding “shisha bars” when England goes smokefree on July 1 could worsen the grave inequalities in health that already affect ethnic minorities.”

BAREFACED LIAR ! Wasim Maziak :“No Research into Hookah Use Existed Before 2002” ! (to The Detroit News, Michigan)

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BBC NEWS: Shisha 450 Times Worse than Cigarettes, New Research Reveals. Swine Flu Link Now Established

"High levels of carbon monoxide can lead to brain damage and unconsciousness”. This is true: see our previous article:

New Study Finds Hookah Carbon Monoxide Most Hazardous Type of All Existing Carbon Monoxides in the World

QUOTATIONS

“Dr Hilary Wareing, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, told the BBC's Asian Network she was shocked by the results of the research.

"Our mouths opened at the level of harm - none of the tests we did showed anything other than shisha is hazardous to health". Paul Hooper, regional manager at the Department of Health, said the findings made the dangers of shisha a "major issue".“

""We found one session of smoking shisha - that's 10 milligrams (of fruit tobacco) for 30 minutes - gave carbon monoxide levels that were at the lowest four and five times higher than having a cigarette," said Dr Wareing."

"But at the worst, shisha was 400 to 450 times more dangerous than having a cigarette," Dr Wareing added."

FIRST Comment by the Observatory on Hookah or Health. Since the above figures were for a 30 minute session only, we infer that a classical one-hour shisha session would be as dangerous for human health as 800 to 900 cigarettes, that is 40 to 45 PACKS OF CIGARETTES ! Dr Wareing was certainly shocked after the 1st half hour and for this reason stopped the measurements there...

- “Shisha smokers in a cafe in Edgware Road, London, said the findings would make them think twice about smoking".

- "You know you can die from cigarettes, but you don't know you can die from shisha," said one.

- "I'm now going home to research it," said another.“

SECOND comment by the Observatory : Excellent initiative ! We recommend the Centre for Tobacco Control Research established by Cancer Research UK, one of the authors of an important report on the hazards of cigarette passive smoking. See evaluation of this study: “Lifting the SmokeScreen"

SWINE FLU

“There's a heightened risk of getting TB [Tuberculosis], herpes and infections like that," she [the Doctor] said. "Now you know swine flu is on the top of the agenda right now - there's no kind of direct correlation, but at time when we're up on our hygiene, it's not the best type of activity to be taking part in." ”

SOURCE: “Shisha 'as harmful as cigarettes'”? By Perminder Khatkar: BBC Asian Network. 23 August 2009

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"United Kingdom Ban on Smoking in General and on Hookah Smoking in Particular Should NOT Stay", Analysts Say

Remember July 6, 2007:
Ban On Hookah Smoking Should Stay, Argue Doctors, England :

"When used for smoking tobacco, the hookah is included in the legislation that came into force in England on 1 July 2007 banning smoking in public places. The authors believe that including the hookah in the legislation is appropriate since the exposure of non-smokers to tobacco fumes is considerably higher than for cigarette smoking because of the large plume of smoke that the hookah generates"

NEWS: An electronic Letter was published yesterday in the British Medical Journal, arguing that the UK Ban is illegal and based on poor and pseudo science. It concludes that:

“Based on the above-mentioned research on ETS (cigarettes in general and hookah in particular), the conclusion is that the UK Ban on smoking should be lifted as soon as possible. For the scientific credibility of public health interventions among the public, it is important to stress that tobacco use is dangerous and particularly tobacco smoking. However, active smoking completely differs from passive smoking”

READ POWER-FULL LETTER NOW AND DON'T LET ANY "EXPERT" JUDGE ON YOUR BEHALF:

UK Ban on Smoking in General and on Hookah Smoking in Particular Should NOT Stay

RELEVANT READINGS:
Tetralogy of Hookah World Premieres Now Complete with Pioneering Study on Hookah and Cigarette Passive Smoking (Environmental Tobacco Smoke)

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Tetralogy of Hookah World Premieres Now Complete with Pioneering Study on Hookah and Cigarette Passive Smoking (Environmental Tobacco Smoke)

Completing the 3 first elements (Critique of the Flawed WHO Report, Study on Cancer Aetiology and Study on Radioactivity), the last component of the Tetralogy of Hookah World Premieres is now published in English and Open Access (full text free):

Hookah (Shisha, Narghile) Smoking and Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS). A Critical Review of the Relevant Literature and the Public Health Consequences. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2009; 6(2):798-843.

50 pages of hard and debunking scientific facts to offer to your local Prohibition agent (FULL TEXT FREE). Table of contents (useful) here:

ABSTRACT

Hookah (narghile, shisha, “water-pipe”) smoking is now seen by public health officials as a global tobacco epidemic. Cigarette Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) is classically understood as a combination of Side-Stream Smoke (SSS) and Exhaled Main-Stream Smoke (EMSS), both diluted and aged. Some of the corresponding cigarette studies have served as the scientific basis for stringent legislation on indoor smoking across the world. Interestingly, one of the distinctive traits of the hookah device is that it generates almost no SSS. Indeed, its ETS is made up almost exclusively by the smoke exhaled by the smoker (EMSS), i.e. which has been filtered by the hookah at the level of the bowl, inside the water, along the hose and then by the smoker’s respiratory tract itself. The present paper reviews the sparse and scattered scientific evidence available about hookah EMSS and the corresponding inferences that can be drawn from the composition of cigarette EMSS. The reviewed literature shows that most of hookah ETS is made up of EMSS and that the latter qualitatively differs from MSS. Keeping in mind that the first victim of passive smoking is the active smoker her/himself, the toxicity of hookah ETS for non-smokers should not be overestimated and hyped in an unscientific way.

EXCERPTS

A “serious risk” for Non-Smokers (WHO report) . Yes or no ?

“In view of all the above described distinguishing traits, a central objective of the present review is to determine whether hookah ETS [Environmental Tobacco Smoke, i.e. “Passive Smoking”] represent a “serious risk” to non-smokers. It is recalled, once again, that what is at stake here is “passive smoking”, not active smoking. The latter has also been surrounded by a wide confusion. Consequently, the focus of the present review is on EMSS.” (page 808)

An Experiment Anti-Tobacco Organizations Did Not Want You To Know About

“Three decades ago, Russell et al. carried out a famous artificial experiment in which 20 volunteers spent about 78 minutes seated in an unventilated smoke-filled room of about 43 c.m. (15x12x8 ft). Eighty cigarettes and two cigars were burnt or smoked. The average ambient CO concentration reached 38 ppm. Thanks to COHb monitoring, the researchers concluded that “the amount of inhaled CO by non-smokers as a result of their exposure to ETS was about the same as would be expected if they had actively smoked and inhaled one cigarette”[105]. Other researchers have performed a more realistic although “acute natural exposure” experiment in which seven non-smokers were exposed to tobacco smoke under natural conditions for two hours in a public house. They found that the increase in expired CO of 5.9 ppm was similar to increases in smokers after a single cigarette [101]. Scherer et al. measured an active/passive ratio of CO varying between 2.7 and 4.2 (40 mg-400 mg / 14.4 mg-96 mg) [Table 3] [100]” (page 819).

So what ? A mere question of smell and odors ?

“Perhaps the only problem regarding hookah ETS might be odours. Experts had once noted that “although many people dislike the smell of burning tobacco, there are some who enjoy it” and added that “this is especially true of cigar or pipe smoke, which nevertheless contain higher concentrations of irritants than cigarette smoke” [74]. In the case of heated flavoured (apple, strawberry, rose, etc.) tobacco-molasses mixture (moassel/tobamel), it is noteworthy that non-smokers do not feel bothered by the smoke [2]. The only problems reported so far are social nuisances caused by the smell of flavours, particularly in urban settings.” (page 832)

Will US Americans Go on Smoking in 2010 in spite of Prohibition ?

“Citing a report of the Institute of Medicine (2001), a recent paper concludes that: "While prevention and cessation is the most effective way to eliminate the health risks of cigarette smoking, the use of cigarettes and other tobacco products will continue. In spite of stringent smoking restrictions in the United States, it is expected that, in 2010, approximately 10–15% of the adult population in this country will not be willing or able to give up tobacco consumption (Institute of Medicine, 2001). For these people it is most important to develop products of harm reduction" [26].” (page 832)

For researchers in Humanities: Environemental Tobacco Smoke in Italian and French literature...

Social and Human sciences are very important in this field. Don’t they say that smoking distinguishes humans from animals ?

« Qui venivano gli amici, e anch’essi si buttavano e, come diceva Muscarà, s’abbiavanu e sdavacàvanu, sui pagliericci e le ciambele di cuoio, rimpiendo presto la camera di un tale fumo di sigareta che, dal balcone socchiuso, i passanti vedevano uscire una sorta di lenzuolo grigio palpitante nell’aria. Fumo, caffè, e liquori... » (Vitaliano Brancati, 1940)

« ...sous les treilles aux pampres frais, sous les glycines, sous les platanes; des narguilés par myriades, le long des rues, exhalaient leur fumée enjôleuse. » (Pierre Loti, 1904)

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS ON COMFITS OF INTERESTS...

Of course it is a “study flawed from the outset” or “fatally flawed” and there is obviously a pressing “need for clarification on comfit of interest” .... In any case, this is “irresponsible journalism” … and, in modern speak, ”DENIALISM” ...

Those under the influence of the above and other professional defamers (Wasim Maziak, Thomas Eissenberg, Kenneth Ward, Alan Shihadeh, Brian Primack, Michele Walsh, Cindy Bryce), undercover and proxy agents (Matthew GELFAND, “student” from Brown University, etc.), witch hunters (Pascal Diethelm, etc.) and other plagiarists and liars, are kindly requested to go:
THERE and contemplate Section 13 in particular. Good Bye.

RELEVANT READING

Denialism, Hookah Environmental Tobacco Smoke, and the «Overwhelming Consensus on the Evidence». Eur J Public Health; Feb 17, 2009


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