Inquisition at Inhalation Toxicology Journal. Editor-in-Chief Dr Donald GARDNER Agrees with Pit Bull “Peer-Reviewer” Who Calls to Burning Hookah Books

[IMPORTANT UPDATE (March 31, 2011. And the last straw of this incredible story of sordid customs is that the study has been funded by the Tobacco Industry (cigarettes) itself! Evidence:

Big Tobacco & Big Pharma Against "Oriental" Hookah Outsider ]


Background:

The Inhalation Toxicology journal has recently published a paper by the 3 $ million funded US-American University of Beirut ““waterpipe””™ antismoking team:

Marwan KATURJI, Nancy DAHER, Hiba SHEHEITLI, Rawad SALEH, Alan SHIHADEH: 

Direct measurement of toxicants inhaled by water pipe users in the natural environment using a real-time in situ sampling technique

 The first author is a figure here. The real author is Alan SHIHADEH who, for memory and a better understanding of the context, is:

-co-author of the WHO flawed report on ““waterpipe””™smoking

-member of the antismoking Big Pharma funded Globalink network

-a regular “scientific” voice to support ““waterpipe””™ smoking bans everywhere in the world (see link in “Other Relevant Readings” section).

Based on a so-called “field study”, the above antismoking authors boast of (hold your breath) “demonstrating” and presenting (hold your breath) what would be “the most robust evidence to date that water pipe smoking entails inhaling large quantities of toxicants”. They add that their results would be “consistent with a growing body of studies on narghile water pipe toxicant content and health effects, which have unanimously pointed to the hazardous nature of first- and second-hand narghile water pipe smoking".

“Real smokers” would therefore inhale (hold your breath) in a one hour hookah session: 640 mg tar, 150 mg carbon monoxide and 4.42 mg nicotine. When notified, Kamal, still believing in the independence of some titles, sent a critique to the journal in which he highlighted, point by point, the numerous flaws, biases and errors of that supposedly। The most important one is that the study didn’t involve, as expected, 100% of narghile-only users nor such smokers puffing in a natural way.

40% of the so-called volunteers were actual cigarette smokers and 20% were couples of individuals. All have been drawing as mad on the pipe to satisfy their technical observers (they k

now they were observed: some of them drew up to 400 puffs to show off or just for fun) for a full hour (named “compensation” (nicotine) in technical terms).

What is more for a so-called field study that is all about scaring “public authorities” about tar levels, not a single word can be found about glycerol, a major component of tar! Kamal is also convinced that some parts of this highly politicised paper were ghost written by members of WHO TobReg (“”peer-reviewers”” of the WHO flawed report on ““waterpipe””™ smoking) who are pushing for printing the above figures (above tar, nicotine and CO) on all elements of the ““waterpipe””  paraphernalia.

This means that the 640mg tar figure (which is highly biased) can’t be scientifically compared (as they do) with that produced by cigarette (for memory: “10 mg” is a limit printed on cigarette packs). First, the chemical composition of tar is completely different: a thing that they have been led to admit further to Kamal’s repeated critiques since the publishing of the critique of the WHO flawed report. Secondly, that figure includes that of glycerol (something around 50% of tar – depends on settings and setups). This is why the hookah smokescreen looks so different from that of cigarettes.

The first “REGULATION” (remember this word related to WHO TobReg political objectives) trick (as others you are now familiar with this kind of scientific literature: “forgetting” to change the water...) consists therefore in keeping silent on this very important point (Kamal says: a “taboo” one). Indeed, not a word on it in a long manuscript! The objective is to let the gullible ones (*) believe that 1 hookah produces (now!) 64 times the amount of tar of one cigarette, with a new equivalence:

1 hookah = 64 cigarettes ! You’re dead!

(*) including among tobacco researchers as some of them are quite ignorant and even believe that tar is “present” in the tobacco itself before it is lit. See top blunder by Dr Anwar Nassar and his colleagues from the same US-American University of Beirut in a recent response to another critique from Kamal.

So what ? Dr Donald Gardner, Editor-in-Chief of the Inhalation Toxicology journal, immediately found Kamal’s critique to be authoritative and acceptable. He just asked Kamal the permission to submit it to the authors so they have an opportunity to respond. As an advocate of scientific debate, the former accepted.

After he received the response (understand pressures in the form of defamation: a classical weapon of the antismoking Globalink soldiers), Dr Gardner, one day later, informed Kamal of his sudden new decision not to publish his critique.

He argued in vain to justify such a flip flop. He mentioned “reports from reviewers”(plural!), exposing this huge lie by presenting later (on Kamal’s request) only one tiny “report” and a meant vague gobbledygook “post hoc (!) “critical” paragraph from himself in order to justify his anti-scientific “U-turn”. He proved he was more ignorant of the issue than the “peer-reviewer” himself! The bottom line is that this man (Editor in Chief!) isn’t aware of what he says and can contradict one day later what he has confirmed the day before! Or he’s just a coward. Thought Police! Stick’em’up!

Excellent! What did that “report” from the “peer-reviewer” said? 3 stupid short though killin’ sentences to block the critique. 2 groundless worthless attacks on the form of the critique (The “peer-reviewer”’s “guts”(sic!) didn’t digest the point-by-point structure). The third one reveals the pit-bull nature of that “peer-reviewer” (likely from the University of California, “a hive of antismoking fanaticism” according to Kamal). Kamal would have written 3 books cited in his manuscript: 

Anonymous “independent” (dix. Donald Gardner himself) pit-bull “peer-reviewer” of the Inhalation Toxicology journal said:

“the author claims no conflicts of interest, yet he cites three of his own books”!

The truth is that NOT A SINGLE BOOK was cited in the critique. What does it mean ?

1) that the “peer-reviewer’ hadn’t read the paper he was officially supposed to “review”.

2) He has voluntarily LIED (Kamal is seriously thinking of bringing a lawsuit against him)

3) This ”peer-reviewer” is actually calling to AUTODAFES (burning of books which are not clearly identified as antismoking).

CONCLUSION

This story shows that:

1) The authors (Alan SHIHADEH and his band) of the criticized article, have declined the offer to respond to each of the points. However, they co-decided that the critique should not be published. They LIED to the Editor-in-Chief when they said that they had already addressed the critiques elsewhere.

2) The anonymous “peer-reviewer” has LIED (about the existence of 3 books mentioned in the critique). He is, together with crowds of antismoking colleagues occupying the Editorial boards of biomedical journals, a modern INQUISITOR.

3) The Editor-in-Chief (Dr Donald Gardner) has LIED about the number of peer-reviewers and about his solemn promise (confirmed by twice = 2 e-mails to Kamal) that he would publish the critique (after he has accepted it) even if the authors failed to respond (what they did).

The conclusion is that we have here an excellent live example of: CORRUPTION, ““WATERPIPE””™ INQUISITION, WITCH-HUNT, ETHICAL VIOLATION, PIT-BULL “PEER-REVIEW”, PSEUDO-SCIENCE, LYSSENKOIST SCIENCE, LIES, TRICKS, PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC TERROR, DOUBLE-STANDARD, THOUGHT POLICE, PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC REVISIONISM, CENSORSHIP.

When it comes to ““waterpipe”” smoking (because the world is, particularly since 2002, at war against the people, culture –and here, material objects (!), of the Middle East – to put it short), everything is permitted.

Even when the critique doesn’t come from Kamal (*), any researcher isn’t allowed to publish critiques of the Lyssenkoist “official” ““waterpipe””™ antismoking literature directed by Alan SHIHADEH, Thomas EISSENBEG and Wasim MAZIAK (all soldiers of the Big Pharma financed antismoking Globalink organization) and all indirectly or directly funded by Big Pharma. All other researchers (appearing as “dwarves”, from time to time) cannot but parrot their “studies”. The loop is looped and it works!

(*) A good example is given by Australian researchers who came up with “unexpected” results. The (police) warning (by Wasim Maziak) was immediate:

• Carroll T, Poder N, Perusco A. Is concern about waterpipe tobacco smoking warranted? Aust N Z J Public Health। 2008 Apr;32(2):181-2.
• Maziak W, Are premature public health statements warranted? Aust N Z J Public Health. 2008; 2008;32(5):490.

Kamal’s reaction was immediately accepted by the brave Editors in Chief of the journal who obviously didn’t appreciate Wasim Maziak’s admonishing tone:

To whom does ‘public health’ belong when it comes to ‘Waterpipe’ Smoking ? Aust N Z J Public Health 2008; 32 (6): 583. Doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2008.00319.x

 The whole story is detailed in Kamal’s Letter to Dr Donald GARDNER

OTHER VERY RELEVANT READINGS

In particular, it also exposes the Globalink nexus. This document, dated Dec 13, 2010 also provides (at the end) the previous correspondence between both. It is an excellent demonstration on how a barefaced liar (supposed to be a “scientist” and a ““peer-reviewer”” with a journal supposedly respecting editorial ethics) is supported by the Editor-in-chief who in is turn can’t but lie in his turn to justify his sudden U-turn in his decision, not to mention the lies by US-AUB authors. 

Kamal has given the reasons for which he published the correspondence:

“Because my original manuscript has now been circulated among the antismoking Globalink activists, and because the Inhalation Toxicology journal has, apart from lies and misconduct, openly trodden the ethical code (COPE) it boasts of adhering to, the correspondence between Dr Donald Gardner, its Editor-in-chief and I, is being disclosed below so that everyone can check how the whole tobacco-related scientific literature peer-review system, particularly when it comes to ““waterpipe”” smoking, is corrupted”.

COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics, is “a code of conduct for editors of biomedical journals”, “a suggested code of conduct for editors to guide them towards being fair to authors, researchers, and readers”:

• Alan SHIHADEH and Wasim MAZIAK, “scientific” “guarantees” of smoking bans: 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) [based, among others, on an interview with Wasim Maziak and Alan Shihadeh]. Sub-heading: “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.” (The summum of hypocrisy!)

• Globalink Undeclared Non-Financial Global Conflicts of Interest in Tobacco Smoking

• Kamal’s response to a reader’s comment who proved to be touting medicines of the pharmaceutical industry during the “Swine Flu” episode. Criminalising Dissent and its Undeclared Motives"

• Wasim MAZIAK Sells «Arab Way of Smoking» Apocalypse for Quick US Prohibitionist Intervention in Narghilistan

• Linda S. Heard. Shisha ban risks diluting Alexandria’s flavor. Online Journal (Established 1998 to provide uncensored and accurate news, analysis and commentary). Oct 6, 2010.

• The Lebanese Ban on Smoking in Hospitality Venues (Cafes, etc.):US Interventionism and Prohibition in the Name of the FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control). Knol. 2010 (Apr 14).

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

THE UNIVERSAL OPPOSITION TO BAD SCIENCE

This article is an example of junk science about tobacco smoking. This kind of “science” can be termed “TREIF” (non-Kosher) science in Hebrew, “HARAM” (non-Halal) science in Arabic. Indeed, “there is a saying by the Prophet which reads: “Seek science [good sound science, of course] from the cradle to the grave”. In Marxist terms, this may be termed "Bourgeois science". It can also be named “Bad Science” as a UK professor of Applied Psychology would say: “Bad Science in a good cause is just bad science”:

We peoples of the word: United we stand against  

pseudo-science and totalitarian science!

Images: courtesy of Project Censored , Daily Censored and Cine-L’affiche (see how recently in France, the pipe of the famous actor, Jacques Tati, has been hidden, further to pressures by antismoking groups. It was replaced by a yellow star (as in the good old good times of fascism...).

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!

«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)

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 !

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

2009-08-25 22:56:52 – “One of the world's leading scientific experts on shisha smoking has criticised the BBC and the Tobacco Control Collaborating Centre for "misrepresentation" and "gross exaggeration" in a news story that claimed that hookah smoking can be "450 times more dangerous" than cigarette smoking […]”

Full story HERE or THERE ("Shisha Madness" article, by Chris S.)

Note: this is a comment on a previous article:

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

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 !

What Do Anti-Smoking Researchers and Organizations Mean with Their Permanent Psychological War on So-Called Comfits of Interests ?

QUESTION: What do anti-smoking researchers and organizations mean with their permanent psychological war on so-called comfits of interests that would “invalidate” so many studies on tobacco ?

Our conclusion is that they would like every author who disagrees with the “overwhelming” “cumulating” “evidence” on the deadly hazards of “passive smoking” to declare (in the Comfits of interest section):

“The author is a smoker”... (the ultimate crime)

Image: Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos (Aljazeera English, Jan 18, 2009)

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 !

The Pediatrics Journal Publishes ““Waterpipe””™ Millionaires' Renewed Libel & Lies about Their Own and Others' Comfits of Interests

Brian Primack, Michele Walsh, Cindy Bryce and Thomas Eissenberg have published a recent study in the Pediatrics journal (left). Not less than “Errors, Misrepresentations and Misquotations” were found in their so-called study on “Water-Pipe Tobacco Smoking in Arizona” (check out HERE ). Such a comment was welcome in a very scientific way by considering that it would be “not germane to the method, results, discussion, and implications of [their] manuscript”…

Primack, Walsh, Bryce and Eissenberg’s only argument (as is the case with most antismoking researchers of the (soon-to-be-freed-from-tobacco) world) is based on religiously repeated libel and ad hominem attacks. They always refer to past events often reported in anti-smoking journals and in which (this is easy to understand) the brave scientists who were one day accused of being "stooges of the Big Tobacco", were denied the right to respond, at least on a fifty-fifty basis. This phenomenon bears a scientific name. It is called McCarthysm, neo-MacCarthysm (see recent examples HERE).

More recently (and we are sorry to repeat this to returning visitors), two INNOVATIONS (!) were brought to the defense and attack system of antismoking researchers: PLAGIARISM and OPPROBRIUM. The latter is something different from defamation. It is believed to have a stronger impact on all social strata, not only in the science field. The point is to name independent tobacco researchers “DENIALISTS”. See how this whole thing works HERE

COMFITS OF INTERESTS...
The first author of the collective defamation is Brian Primack: «Dr Primack was supported in part by a physician faculty scholar award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation […]», the study says. This innocent organisation is, according to an independent observer “heavily underwritten by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson”… More scandals about this dodgy foundation helping Big Pharma to sell off its stuff can be found on the FORCES site.

What the Pediatrics study doesn’t say is that Brian Primack has been in charge (at the Fogarty International Center/National Institutes of Health) of managing the funding of the ““Waterpipe””™ US-Syrian Centre , author of dozens of prestigious publications (including the WHO calamitous report) which have proved to be useless (historical garbage). Certainly, this represents a potential serious comfit of interest, once again undeclared.

It’s indeed amazing to see these people behaving like religious uppish fanatics who consider that such connections (direct or indirect, with pharmaceutical companies) should not be declared.

As for Thomas Eissenberg, a world ""Waterpipe""™ expert, read about his undeclared competing interests swept under the carpet by Nicotine and Tobacco Research, the same journal known for having... Endorse[d] a Scientific Error as Big and Carcinogenic as a Yemeni Narghile Bowl !

We’ll try to give you more information about Michele Walsh and Cindy Bryce, the two female ""Waterpipe""™ experts and Defamation apprentices in a further article. Stay tuned.

THE LIES PUBLISHED BY THE PEDIATRICS JOURNAL
In their libellous E-Letter, Primack, Eissenberg and the two girls criminalize the use of E-Letters. Here is below the series of lies (to be found in the few lines they dropped there...). They cite a series of E-Letters which, for most of them, have no connection with the topic:

-Reference 2 was in Pediatrics and the authors of the study under critique (Knishkowy and Amitai [Ref 6]) had respectfully responded and acknowledged the value the critique. This is an intent to criminalize E-Letters.
-Reference 3 and 4 (Inhal Tox 2008; BJOG 2008) were NOT “E-Letters” but full Letters to the Editor that had nothing to do with what Primack et al purport. This is a double LIE.
-Bacha et al (Ref 5) praised several times the critique of the WHO flawed report in their study published in Inhalation Toxicology but only forgot to cite it properly. This is why a corrective full Letter to the Editor (and not a E-Letter) was published. This has nothing to do with what Primack et al purport. This is a another LIE.
-Tamim et al (no reference given: BJOG 2008) have respectfully responded to an official Letter to the Editor and acknowledged the value of the remarks. This is a another LIE on behalf of Primack et al.
-As for Reference 9, KC was not “banned from submitting to [that] academic journal” [they mean (don't laugh...) the antismoking "Tobacco Control" journal] but the E-Letter by Chapman there (to which he was not allowed to respond) clearly mentions E-Letters only, not any manuscript. Not only this was a fabricated « conflict of interest » (see below) but Primack et al, once again, LIE on purpose.
-As for Reference 10 (involving Pediatrics), Matthew Gelfand, played the role of a proxy (as a so-called "student"[full story here]) for Eissenberg and the other authors of the WHO flawed report.

CONCLUSION
All editorial ethics this kind of journal (Pediatrics) boasts of, just as all other nicotine and tobacco control journals, were actually trampled.

REMEMBER: COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics, is “a code of conduct for editors of biomedical journals”, “a suggested code of conduct for editors to guide them towards being fair to authors, researchers, and readers”.

OUR FRIEND’S COMFITS OF INTEREST
He is always proud to say, when he is invited to do so by those angry and heinous mobs of defamers:I have never received direct or indirect funding neither from pharmaceutical companies (nicotine "replacement" therapies and products) nor from the tobacco industry. I was the first to publish results of (ambient and alveolar) Carbon Monoxide levels in hookah lounges and their patrons (Tobaccology thesis 1998; Alcoologie 1999; Doctoral thesis 2000) and subsequently issued public health recommendations in this respect. Out of this concern, I have participated by year 2004 in the design of a harm reduction hookah (cutting down CO by 95%) of which I am an official co- inventor (Patent 2005. "Narguile a allumage simplifie" [Narghile with simplified ignition]. Appl. EP20050291196. Filed 3 June. Published 14 Dec). My participation in the project was frozen by Autumn 2004. However, the official termination was formalised only by 15 June 2005, date by which I have signed away and ceded all my rights regarding the invention (legally certified by State Attorney in Paris).More details here (about this world famous E-Letter that SHOOK THEIR WORLD …) : HERE and THERE

It is astounding that, while our friend has published numerous pioneering studies and critiques (on cancer, radioactivity, hookah active and passive smoking, etc.) –not to mention his numerous E-Letters-, these angry mobs couldn’t find, after almost 5 years of a neo McCarthyst witch hunt on the Internet, but one fabricated comfit of interest in the form of a E-Letter (the first of his life !) sent to Tobacco Control (an antismoking journal: “scientific” arm of the openly PFIZER sponsored Globalink anti-smoking network, aiming at implementing the World Prohibition of Tobacco thanks to the to the so-called FCTC, the brain Formatting Convention on Tobacco Control).

RELEVANT:

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

«Post hoc Censorship» Editor-in-Chief & World ““Waterpipe””™ Millionaire Experts Scared by The Sacred Narghile’s "Undeclared" Comfits of Interests !

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

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 !

«Post hoc Censorship» Editor-in-Chief and World ““Waterpipe””™ Millionaire Experts Scared by The Sacred Narghile’s "Undeclared" Comfits of Interests !

TOPIC: Wasim MAZIAK' call for action published in the Addiction journal (Sep 4, 2008) with a "For Debate" label. Here we go !

Returning readers will remember that the above libelous paper (which also sealed the calamitous bankruptcy of the almost one-decade old world ““waterpipe””™ “peer-reviewed” “good science”) was commented upon by the Observatory on Hookah or Health in a previous article

Finally, and for reasons that we still ignore, our friend decided to test whether the “For Debate” official label was sincere or, once again, mere hypocrisy. Poor Man ! He prepared a polite “Letter to the Editor” and sent it to the above journal. His article was titled: “Shisha Smoking. Time for a Radical Change in Research Methodology ».

No need to say that, as usual, he debunked each of the main ludicrous points raised by Wasim MAZIAK in his call for action (on ““waterpipe””™). He said the reception of his manuscript was acknowledged to him on October 23, 2008 by the journal. His paper was so powerful that on January 21, 2009, after back’n’forth’n’tug’of’war, it was officially accepted for publication by the Editor in Chief (Robert WEST).
Copy of the officially accepted Letter: HERE

Wasim MAZIAK was then informed of this acceptance and offered the right to respond. However, our friend was surprised to learn that he would not necessarily be authorized to publish a rebuttal to the second letter by Wasim MAZIAK. Strange fairplay and understanging of democracy in the Addiction journal, he thought...

Wasim MAZIAK had apparently not scientific argument to put forward, so he did what most of anti-smoking researchers of the world have been doing for two decades now (particularly in the Tobacco Control and Nicotine and Tobacco Research journals and, more recently, in Pediatrics [Don’t miss our NOTE about Brian PRIMACK and Thomas EISSENBERG at the end of this article]): resorting to LIBEL, with, of course, no possibility for the attacked individual to publish a response to defamation.

More recently, two INNOVATIONS (!) were brought to the defense and attack system of antismoking researchers: PLAGIARISM and OPPROBRIUM. The latter is something different from defamation. It is believed to have a stronger impact on all social strata, not only in the science field. The point is to name independent tobacco researchers “DENIALISTS”. See how this works: Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond ?

After 3 months of “peer-review’ of a simple Letter to the Editor, Robert WEST invented (hold your breath Folks !) the pretext that our friend (as the main scientific contributor since no other non-antismoking tobacco researcher was identified in the world…) of The Sacred Narghile )), had a VERY SERIOUS comfit of interest (sort of BIG MONEY) because there would be there (on this site) a mysterious link that would lead to another not less mysterious that would lead in its turn to a retailer (!), etc… My God, sounds like a game in Alice in Wonderland, Bob !

In his letter to Robert WEST (February 5, 2009), our friend wrote: “However, I should be grateful if you could tell me which mysterious “links” are those which lead to not less mysteriously secret wealthy funding sources… I am anxious to know. If you think of a site like Hookah Culture, non commercial and run (and not updated) by a US student, then why don’t you accuse the anti-smoking researchers of the BACCHUS team who cite it [7] ? I am afraid there is a great deal of double standard in your judgment… The Sacred Narghile has absolutely no conflict of interest to declare and, as its main scientific contributor, I can swear before God (as US-Americans do) or any other Super Supranational Power, including WHO TobReg, that it has never received a single dollar from any source”.

NOTES:
1. above URLs inserted by the Observatory.
2. The BACCHUS experts state: “Other websites promote hookah use as chic and elegant (hookahculture.com) or as part of a unique lifestyle (insidehookah.com) and hookahs as objects of religious veneration (sacrednarghile.com)”. Source: BACCHUS (White Paper on Hookah Use). FUNNY QUESTION: Since Bacchus is the Greek god of wine, is this an "Undeclared Competing Interest" ?

> Kamal’s integral response to Robert WEST (Feb 5, 2009) can be found: HERE

CALL TO ALL VISITORS: Help us identify the mysterious link on The Sacred Narghile !

ROBERT WEST AND THE CASE OF TWO BRAVE ISRAELI RESEARCHERS

With the above case concerning an independent researcher and a previous one, Robert WEST, Editor-in-chief of the Addiction journal, appears to be a “post hoc censorhip” expert, a phrase used by 3 prominent and independent experts in the field of Addiction (Damned and be unpublished ? in Addiction Research and Theory, 2002).

Robert WEST also attacked the two Israeli authors of a masterpiece in tobacco research: a book titled “A Critique of Nicotine Addiction”: « The book grew out of interest sparked in the authors who had done a partial review of the literature which was commissioned by a firm of lawyers one of whose clients was a tobacco company. That connection was used by the Editors of Addiction as the justification for a major editorial outcry (N.B. not a book review) under the banner "Another mirror shattered? Tobacco industry involvement suspected in a book which claims that nicotine is not addictive" (Edwards, G., Babor, T., Hall, W. West, R. 2002). »(same source as above)

A MONUMENT OF HYPOCRISY... DON'T MISS these brave Tel Aviv-based researchers' reaction to this global hypocrisy (Harm Reduction Journal: July 3, 2008). They also respond, from their own viewpoint, to Wasim MAZIAK, international lessons giver (*), and raise Jack HENNINGFIELD's (Top Tobacco and Nicotine Expert, WHO TobReg) blatant failure to declare his huge competing interests in a journal in which his colleagues (Wasim MAZIAK, Thomas EISSENBERG, Alan SHIHADEH, Kenneth WARD) had raised a fabricated comfit of interest against the author of the critique of the WHO flawed report.

(*) in twisted epidemiology, shoddy science, blindly-aligned geopolitics and double standard ethics.

What about Robert WEST’s conflicts of interest ?

« Robert West has received research funds, travel funds and consultancy fees from pharmaceutical companies which manufacture nicotine replacement products and other treatments for nicotine dependence ».

SOURCE : Edwards, G., Babor, T., Hall, W. & West, R. (2002). Editorial: Another mirror shattered? Tobacco industry involvement suspected in a book which claims that nicotine is not addictive. Addiction 97: 1-5.

Great !
However, Robert WEST, as one of the heads of such a “self-righteous crusade”, did not declare his comfits of interests in a recent book he has authored (Theory of Addiction. Blackwell Publ. 2006), therefore trampling underfoot the stringent ethics he wishes others to stick to…. How would you call this: HYPOCRISY, DOUBLE STANDARD OR BOTH ?

NOTE ABOUT Brian PRIMACK, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Thomas EISSENBERG

Brian PRIMACK, Michele WALSH, Cindy BRYCE and Thomas EISSENBERG have authored a recent libel in the Pediatrics journal. «Dr Primack was supported in part by a physician faculty scholar award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation […]», the study says. Apparently, their strong funding was not a guarantee against the numerous errors and misquotations in their study….Hummm...
Then, what about this Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ? It is, according to a Public Health professor at Boston University, “heavily underwritten by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson”… Humm…. More scandals about this dodgy foundation helping Big Pharma to sell off its stuff on the FORCES site.

As for Thomas EISSENBERG, a world ""Waterpipe""™ expert, read about his undeclared competing interests swept under the carpet by Nicotine and Tobacco Research, the same journal known for having... Endorse[d] a Scientific Error as Big and Carcinogenic as a Yemeni Narghile Bowl !

What a wonderful world we are a living in !

OUR FRIEND’S COMFITS OF INTEREST

He is always proud to say, when he is invited to do so by those angry and heinous mobs of defamers:
I have never received direct or indirect funding neither from pharmaceutical companies (nicotine "replacement" therapies and products) nor from the tobacco industry. I was the first to publish results of (ambient and alveolar) Carbon Monoxide levels in hookah lounges and their patrons (Tobaccology thesis 1998; Alcoologie 1999; Doctoral thesis 2000) and subsequently issued public health recommendations in this respect. Out of this concern, I have participated by year 2004 in the design of a harm reduction hookah (cutting down CO by 95%) of which I am an official co- inventor (Patent 2005. "Narguile a allumage simplifie" [Narghile with simplified ignition]. Appl. EP20050291196. Filed 3 June. Published 14 Dec). My participation in the project was frozen by Autumn 2004. However, the official termination was formalised only by 15 June 2005, date by which I have signed away and ceded all my rights regarding the invention (legally certified by State Attorney in Paris).

More details here (about this world famous E-Letter that SHOOK THEIR WORLD …) : HERE and THERE

It is astounding that, while Kamal has published numerous pioneering studies and critiques (on cancer, radioactivity, hookah active and passive smoking, etc.) –not to mention his numerous E-Letters-, these angry mobs couldn’t find, after almost 5 years of a neo McCarthyst witch hunt on the Internet, but one fabricated comfit of interest in the form of a E-Letter (the first of his life !) sent to Tobacco Control (an antismoking journal: “scientific” arm of the openly PFIZER sponsored Globalink anti-smoking network, aiming at implementing the World Prohibition of Tobacco thanks to the to the so-called FCTC, the brain Formatting Convention on Tobacco Control).


HIGHLY RELEVANT LINKS

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

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

“Anti-Tobacco” Organisations Exposed: Official Scientific Trustworthy Source States that Their Objective is making "global public health" history

Global perspective on tobacco control. Part II. The future of tobacco control: making smoking history ? (Simon CHAPMAN, ex-Editor-in-chief of Tobacco Control)

All Hookah Addicts of the World, Let’s All Chant…ix !

NEXT TIME: if necessary, more and more on comfits of interest by world top "tobacco control" and ““waterpipe””™ experts: Hammond, Henningfield, and so on Old Chap !

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 !

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

We realised, three years later…, that in his E-Letter dated 9 September 2005, PN LEE did NOT declare (for some reason and perhaps because he felt he had no reason to do it, or simply he did not pay attention to the small “Competing Interest” box to be ticked) that he was "a long term consultant to the Tobacco Industry"[1].

Amazingly, Simon CHAPMAN, Editor-in-chief (by that time) of the Tobacco Control journal (see left cover of current issue), did not subsequently launch an international defamation campaign against him. He even offered to publish that E-Letter as a “real” Letter to the Editor [2].

And since "The journal [Tobacco Control] requires authors to declare any competing interests at submission and, with the availability of internal documents, those failing to disclose can often be relatively easily exposed within a few minutes of internet searching"[3]… PN LEE did declare, this time: "Competing interests: Peter Lee is a long term consultant to the tobacco industry"….

Of course, the problem here is not PN LEE who is a great and brilliant epidemiologist who has worked on ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) and has also made excellent critical reviews of tobacco studies, including rare ones. He has the right to work as a consultant to the Tobacco Industry, the Pharmaceutical industry or any other institution. The scientific merit of his work has remained constant and unaffected. The problem is in fact the double standard applied by Simon CHAPMAN.

Why did not the latter trigger an international defamation campaign against PN LEE as he actually did with [KC] further to [his] E-Letter (2 Dec 2004)? He did not allow [kc] to post a response to his [Simon Chapman’s] libelous E-Letter. [kc] wish[es] to remind that the E-Letter [he] posted was the first one of [his] life, long before [he actually began to publishe devastating critiques in biomedical journals. We can say that his first official biomedical publication was the critique of the WHO flawed report on hookah smoking] . Few people will remember that this dangeroues E-Letter was in fact a message originally posted in the GLOBALINK forum (whose stringent and puritan policy is controlled, among others and above all, by Simon CHAPMAN)[QUESTION: sort of ethical comfit of interest, no ?]. [kc] was compelled by the latter, in person, to post it as an “E-Letter” to "his" journal. [kc] ignored what this thing was by that time. The full background of the related witch hunt can be found in an online document [4].
_______________
[1] Lee PN. E-Letter: Response to E Yano and S Chapman. Tobacco Control 2005 (9 Sep) http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/14/4/234#410
[2] Lee PN. Response to E Yano and S Chapman. Tob. Control 2005;14;430-431
[3] Chapman S. Research from tobacco industry affiliated authors: need for particular vigilance. Tobacco Control 2005;14:217–219.
[4] Background of witch hunt: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgbz283m_83fdtkjd

PS: GLOBALINK, giving the image of a civil society grouping of
volunteers fighting for a “noble cause” [that of “Public Health”…, Heavens above !](it is not !), boasts of being supported by PFIZER, one of the major producers of NRT (nicotine “replacement” pharmaceuticals). The commercial logo of this company can be found on the homepage of GLOBALINK.

As for the UICC (International Union against Cancer), the umbrella organisation of Globalink, the “corporate partners” are a bit different (GlaxoSmithKline and other brands...) but belong the same Big Pharma family. QUESTION: is this ethicallly acceptable from a comfit-of-interest viewpoint ?

HIGHLY RELEVANT TO THIS WORLDWIDE HYPOCRISY. Jack HENNINGFIELD, who has been a “peer-reviewer” (as a member of WHO TobReg) of the WHO flawed report, had also posted a comment (similar to a E-Letter) on the critique of that document published by KC. The above expert did NOT declare his striking competing interests in the pharmaceutical industry as other highly respectable researchers and observers have noted.

In fact, Jack HENNINGFIELD is “Vice President, Research & Health Policy” of PINNEY ASSOCIATES whose business is not that of plastic shoes but officially "international pharmaceutical manufacturers and marketers, established specialty pharmaceutical companies, and start-up companies making their first forays into the development and marketing of drugs”.

Despite all this, Erik DYBING and Jack HENNINGFIELD had the cheek, in their common comment, to answer the “Competing interests ?” question by “None declared”. To top it all, this official comment was published simultaneously with one from their protégés (Wasim MAZIAK, Thomas EISSENBERG, Kenneth WARD and Alan SHIHADEH) who actually defamed the author of the critique of the WHO flawed report on the grounds of a purported comfit of interest…

The story is very long as Wasim MAZIAK and Thomas EISSENBERG failed to declare interests in relation to [the whole ""WaterPipeGate""™ file]. Finally], a recent case of hypocrisy/double standard in “tobacco control” is involving the Addiction journal (Editor-in-chief Robert WEST and his protégé Wasim MAZIAK) and has come to our attention. Readers will be briefed on it. Stay tuned.

HIGHLY RELEVANT READINGS

Thomas EISSENBERG's (a world ""Waterpipe""™ expert) Undeclared Competing Interests swept under the carpet by Nicotine and Tobacco Research, the same journal known for having...

Endorse[d] a Scientific Error as Big and Carcinogenic as a Yemeni Narghile Bowl !




Chaud-Crâne for your email, kamal !

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 !

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

[article posted Sep 17, 2008 although updated several times until Sep 22]

Wasim MAZIAK, the Head of the US-funded (2002-2007; 2007-201c2) US-Syrian Center for ““Waterpipe””™ Tobacco Studies, is calling this month for action against ““waterpipe””™:

Maziak W. The waterpipe: time for action. Addiction 2008 (Sep 4)

-Recently, some researchers (yet from the ““waterpipe””™ camp) have revealed how the “primary objective” of the US-Syrian center for ““waterpipe””™ studies has always been ““waterpipe”” -despite shameful denegations by Maziak. REFERENCE: Neergaard J et al. Waterpipe smoking and nicotine exposure: a review of the current evidence. Nicotine Tob Res. 2007 Oct;9(10):987-94)(as reported by trustful official source).

Therefore, such a focus has made this US-Syrian organization suspect from the inception of its activities (2002). Some people will say that its public graphic logo is striking by itself.

-This organization has produced numerous biased and erroneous publications on ““waterpipe””™ smoking which allowed its director to win the job he was probably dreaming of at the University of Memphis where his colleague Kenneth Ward (US channel for the funding of the center) works. Therefore, the heavy focus on ““waterpipe””™ was apparently, from the onset, also driven by personal purposes, not mere public health concerns.

-The author of the “call for action” is the (on purpose) un-declared author of the erroneous World Health Organisation report (declared only 2 years after the epublication and further to our critiques) and of the laundered recycled version of the latter, the erroneous Cochrane Review . Both were supposed to be “peer-reviewed” and “gold standard” (sic) publications... Come on, babe.

The ““Waterpipe””™ Fallacy

-The abstract of Wasim Maziak’s “call for action” reads (beginning): “The waterpipe, known in many cultures under different shapes and names (e.g. hookah, shisha, narghile)”… Further to 6 years of world confusion, the author obviously tries to justify a posteriori and further to our critique, his use of “a nominalist, reductionist and functionalist neologism: ““waterpipe”” that works as a sociological code among tobacco activists and journals”

(See official source: please read carefully the introduction of a recent comment on this worldwide fallacy . You will see that it is not a question of vocabulary preference but that this word has fuelled a huge confusion in the methodology underpinning 95% of studies on this issue. This is blatant scientific misconduct that only pire-reviewers/accomplices in the journals in which these documents were published can gloss over.

-With his two colleagues (Thomas Eissenberg and Kenneth Ward), Wasim Maziak is also one of the inventors of hookah “passive smoking”

- In brief, they have stained for ever the scientific credibility of “prestigious” international organisations as far as tobacco research is concerned. The ““waterpipe””™ expert mentions "addiction" and he actually doesn’t know what he is talking about:

“Dr MAZIAK shows that he is unaware of the difference between “nicotine addiction” and “the role of nicotine in dependence”. The former is a nothing but a dogma imposed to the world thanks to a publication of the Surgeon General (1988)[11]. By contrast, the latter is a right and highly relevant working hypothesis. These are two different things. Such a confusion raises serious concerns because Dr MAZIAK and his team actually work on ““waterpipe”” “nicotine addiction”. Hookah smoking is certainly a tobacco “outsider” (official source: part 8, about another fraud: “Nicotine Addiction”).

[11] Surgeon General. The Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction. US Dept of health and human services 1988; 639 pages.

ACCOUNTABLE for Fuelling Hatred, Xenophobia, Violence and War among Peoples

Thanks to their “high-standard” “peer-reviewed” "good science" sweep-it-under-the-carpet publications, Maziak and his colleagues have contributed to creating conflicts and fuelling hatred in the world. Browse this site and see the kind of biased debate this pseudo-scientific stuff has induced. Come on, have a look at recent horrendous comments on the below popular press article:

“Hookah smokers told to butt out, too. Muslims view ban as 'taking away our right as a multicultural society'” (Maria Cootauco, The Province, August 31, 2008)

Not sick yet ?

Read also this:

Study on US “Waterpipe”™ Users by US-Syrian Center: from Serious Errors to ““Waterpipe”” Fixation, Fallacies, Fallacism and Religious Obsession, etc.

COMMUNIQUE: La rage et l’orgueil contre... le narguilé (in French) (automatic) ENGLISH: press HERE

A critique of “Narguilé : attention, danger!» (accessed June 29, 2007), a story (*) written by Pascal DIETHELM, a member of the Governing Board of the French CNCT (Comité National Contre le Tabagisme). The Sacred Narghile awarded him the Golden Stupidity Palm for his dangerous following statement: «Pire encore, de nombreux parents, en toute innocence, permettent à leurs enfants, parfois de très jeunes adolescents de 12 ans ou moins, de se réunir en groupe avec des amis dans le logement familial pour fumer le narguilé, alors qu'ils n'accepteraient pas que ceux-ci fument des cigarettes.»

The same strategy was followed during the wars waged against Afghanistan and Iraq. They failed and the pseudo-science based war on hookah is doomed to fail.

NEO-ORIENTALIST MALE CHAUVINIST ATTACK AGAINST MIDDLE EAST WOMEN AND THE "CAFE CULTURE"(sic)

Beside the orientalist and neo-orientalist cliches (renewed attack against the use of hookah (narghile, shisha) by Arab and Middle East women (*); not to mention an assault against the "café culture "(sic)(?!))(**), Maziak’s article contains many serious errors (as usual…) and lies.

(*) "The socio-cultural acceptability of waterpipe use is threatening the long-held immunity of Middle Eastern girls/women to smoking" (sic) = The summum of neo-orientalist "public health" junk science.

[added 9/22] Picture (right): how the "anti-tobacco" industry wants Middle-Eastern women. Source: « Il narghilé e le donne» in : Narghilé: un problema di Sanità Pubblica [Public Health and Prevention]. Part 4 of the Tetralogy on Hookah (Narghile, Shisha) and Health. Tabaccologia 2006;4:29-38

(**) Poor ignorant who doesn’t know that there were cafes and culture in the world before the Nineties !

The Observatory on Hookah or Health can now declare that it has won the battle. It has debunked Prohibition and its obscurantism as far as hookah smoking is concerned.

"Dr MAZIAK feigns to ignore the existence of a world prohibitionist agenda when all his ““waterpipe”” studies aim at this very objective. This is not any invention. In the field of cigarette smoking in general, an online resource comments, on almost a daily basis, the hazardous connections between pseudo-science (sometimes termed “junk science” by the editors there) and its relation to the preparation of the FCTC (Framework Convention for Tobacco Control)[7]. As far as hookah is concerned, this strategy has certainly worked in the United Kingdom thanks to the pressure of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health)[8]. The scenario was doomed to be the same in France.

Fortunately, the hookah lounges kept open in Voltaire’s land because some scientist there opposed the wide consensus and showed that the whole “science” and “evidence” behind the ordinance was irrelevant and not applicable to these social places. It is noteworthy that the sub-heading of ASH’s media document was:

“Three leading experts from across the Middle East [one of them was Dr Maziak] have warned that excluding “shisha bars” when England goes smokefree on July 1 [2007] could worsen the grave inequalities in health that already affect ethnic minorities.”

In fact, such an unfair legislation, supported by flawed and erroneous “expert” reports, meant the economic death of “ethnic minorities” commercial activities, the loss of their health insurance and of their families too and other unexpected social problems. Fortunately, this did not happen in France where, thanks to some organisations and researchers, prevention is more focussed on education than repression."

[7] The Rest of the Story. Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary

[8] 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).


>>> Source: "The World Tobacco Prohibition Agenda". Part 6 of powerful Rebuttal to Comment on Study on Hookah smoking and cancer)

Note: The Obervatory is proud of having collaborated in the drafting of the above.

SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Researchers and free-thinkers of the world, unite against junk science, calculated and systematic censorship, publication bias, past camouflaged conflicts of interests and other similar turpitudes.

Time is not for action based on pseudo-science but, first of all, for SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY and ACCOUNTABILITY in research on Shisha, Hookah and Narghile Smoking. Millions of dollars for dozens of flawed studies and the result is:

“95% of this literature has brought virtually nothing new to research for 8 years now”(official source)

Wasim MAZIAK, Thomas EISSENBERG, Kenneth WARD and Alan SHIHADEH: RESIGN ! Give Back the Money Now and Apologize to the World! Send now your troops to US campuses if you have the guts (story HERE) !

Finally, don’t miss Dr Maziak's lesson of "epidemiology" and the powerful rebuttal it deserved:

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World Cannot Give More than What She Has and the History of “Tobacco Control” Will Absolve Me


CRIMINALIZING DISSENT: A SPECIALITY OF THE "ANTI-TOBACCO" INDUSTRY

Wasim MAZIAK’s call for action (in the Addiction journal) openly refers (n°40) to The Sacred Narghile site: “On the other side of the equation, media outlets are emerging with disguised ownership that promote the waterpipe by minimizing the evidence about its negative public health potential [40]”

Almost as funny as: “Other websites promote hookah use as chic and elegant (hookahculture.com) or as part of a unique lifestyle (insidehookah.com) and hookahs as objects of religious veneration (sacrednarghile.com)”. Source: BACCHUS (White Paper on Hookah Use). Since Bacchus is the Greek god of wine, is this an "Undeclared Competing Interest" ?

The owner's identity of The Sacred Narghile (our friend Alex) has always been clearly stated since its inception 8 years ago. As for its contents, our friend and consultant for international and scientific affairs (Chaud-Crâne Kamal !) is no secret for everybody and is recalled a hundred times there on several pages (on the CONTACT PAGE to start with !).

The edorial content is controlled by our friend just as Simon CHAPMAN controls his journal Tobacco Control and, in the same time [no, no... be assured that it is not contradictory !], the policy of Globalink (or Globlal Lynch for those who know) and just as the world tobacco policy is decided by WHO TobReg … So, no lessons of democracy to receive from killers of democracy !

Kamal answered our question with another question:

“Who, other than he and his colleagues [he means Thomas EISSENBERG, Kenneth WARD and Alan SHIHADEH], with the support of WHO TobReg (*), is responsible for the delayed “public health response to this health risk” Dr MAZIAK laments this month in his tribune in the Addiction journal ?”

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001... AND THE ““WATERPIPE””™GATE

[...] “This is the reward for their CALCULATED CENSORSHIP [capitals are ours] when, in the wake of September 11 [2001], they decided to rule out a [Come on kamal, THE MAJOR!] researcher in this field. This researcher had written hundreds of pages offering a sound analysis and deept insights of all biomedical and social aspects (from cancer, chemistry of smoke, dependence, to gender use, etc.), long before their black series of parroting and self-plagiarising publications which brought absolutely nothing new to the issue except a WORLD CONFUSION [capitals are ours]. I wonder if these people have ever studies tobacco science at university...."

Yes, Kamal, it is clear that they have been the puppets of WHO TobReg , the mastermind of all this scandal.

Note: Thanks to The Sacred Narghile (the "promoter" [dix. Maziak] of ““Waterpipe””™ use in the world...) for the summary, linguistic adaptation and links. This site is indeed the Scarecrow Narghile feared by him, WHO TobReg and their likes. Com' on, babe !


OTHER QUESTION: Is there at least ONE researcher in the world, other than our friend, who has been criticising for 8 years now the "good" "peer-reviewed" "science" of MM Wasim MAZIAK, Thomas EISSENBERG, Kenneth WARD, Alan SHIHADEH and their groupies of the "Anti-Tobacco" and Pharmaceutical Industries ? If this individual exists, then welcome to her/him !

We didn't want to respond to Wasim Maziak’ so miserable arguments (published in a so-called «peer-reviewed» journal) reflecting the dispair of his pharmaco-ideological sytem. To the new visitors, we say: browse this site and appraise by yourself the quality of their «evidence». You will see that their «evidence» is very similar to that presented to the UN Insecurity Council to justify the invasion of Iraq and slaughter its populations : 1991-2008. We will never forget, you, ugly cow-boys !


OBJECTIVE OF THE ““WATERPIPE””™ PSEUDO-SCIENCE AND ITS "EVIDENCE': PROMOTING PRODUCTS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY (Big PHARMA) TO "TREAT" HOOKAH "ADDICTS"

Authors of study on Hookah Smoking and Cancer officially responded (June 17, 2008) to Wasim MAZIAK:

"Our study also states that in the light of a total lack of substantial data on “hookah addiction”: “it is certainly too early to suggest the use of Nicotine “Replacement” Therapies and products to “hookah addicts”, bupropion or even Varenicline produced by Pfizer laboratories and marketed as Chantix and Champix”. This suggestion to treat “hookah addicts” with medicines can be found in the erroneous Cochrane Review authored by Maziak, Eissenberg and Ward [30]."

[30] Maziak W, Ward K, Eissenberg T: Interventions for waterpipe smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Oct 17;(4):CD005549.


#################
ANNEX: WHO TobReg political and scientific DEMOCRATIC representativity:
WHO TobReg (Word Health Organisation, Study Group for Tobacco Regulation), also known as the UN Tobacco Insecurity Council :

Erik DYBING (Norway; Chairman)

David L. ASHLEY (USA)
David BURNS (USA)
Mirjana DJORDJEVIC (USA)
S. Katharine HAMMOND (USA)
Jack HENNINGFIELD (USA)
Channing ROBERTSON (USA)
Nigel GRAY (Australia) [almost USA]

Martin JARVIS (United Kindom)
Ghazi ZAATARI (Lebanon, US-American University of Beirut)

K. Srinath REDDY (India)

Who dreams of such a world ?
#################

OTHER IMPORTANT POINT:

"The great risk is that shisha, progressively, take the place of cigarettes" (*)...

A "great risk" for whom ?

(*) Ask Bertrand DAUTZENBERG, president French OFT and Jean-Yves NAU, journalist with Le Monde newspaper), authors of PLAGIARIZED MATERIAL (page 58 of their “book”. A sentence put in bold characters by the authors themselves...)

(*) Communiqué : Tout ce que vous ne pouviez pas savoir sur le livre de Bertrand DAUTZENBERG et Jean-Yves NAU : «Tout ce que vous ne savez pas sur la chicha» (8 June 2007)

So what, Dr MAZIAK ? Is ““waterpipe””™ 200 times more dangerous than cigarettes and as hazardous for health as for your personal career ? What you have been calling "the epidemic" has granted you a job in Memphis University. What else do you want ? A position in WHO TobReg ? May God help you in your great personal ambitions !

#################


Images: courtesy of Get Pakistan

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 !