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!

Dr Rima Nakkash, US-AUB Ambassador of Shisha Prohibition in the Arab World

(updated /section "what religion says about tobacco smoking", Jan 16)

Excerpts from things heard and seen (see image) at a conference (title: Risk of Shisha Use Severe) recently held at the United Arab Emirates University (4-8 January 2010)

Dr Rima Nakkash from the US-American University of Beirut: “Research by the World Health Organisation’s study group on tobacco product regulation conducted in 2005 found that one session of smoking a water pipe could be as dangerous as smoking up to 100 cigarettes".

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS CLAPTRAP FUNDED BY PUBLIC TAX MONEY

FIRST, THE WHO REPORT IS NOT A STUDY but a flawed review of carefully selected antismoking papers themselves full of scientific errors.

SECOND, IT IS A HUGE FRAUD. It is full of serious scientific errors. As an example (among many ones) its authors didn’t realize by that time that :

-the chemical composition (tar to start with) of shisha smoke is completely different from that from cigarette smoke

-temperatures are different in both cases by hundreds of degrees

-shisha smoking is not addictive,

-etc., etc.

EVIDENCE: in the OFFICIAL CRITIQUE OF THE WHO FLAWED REPORT

THIRD, 10 or 100 hundred times more smoke DOES NOT mean 10 or 100 times more “toxic” simply because shisha smoke is chemically completely different. Shisha smoke is mainly made up of GLYCEROL (biologically inactive, experts say) and DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE (a highly dangerous chemical as all honest scientists of the world know.

What is DHMO ?

Video 1 on the hazards of DiHydrogen Monoxide (DHMO).

Video 2

Video 3

ROCKET SOCIOLOGY from US-University of Beirut!

Dr Rima Nakkash:

"This finding is disturbing, she said, because shisha is seen as fashionable and more acceptable than cigarettes among women”.

"In her research among smokers in four Middle Eastern countries, Dr Nakkash found a propensity for shisha smoking among women and youths in particular. “Youths start smoking water pipes because it is socially acceptable and much more permissible than cigarettes, and for women, it is a fashionable trend,” she said."

CONCLUSION

Dr Rima Nakkahs takes Arabs who have not studied at the US-American University of Beirut for boobies who cannot distinguish between heated and burnt materials.

More on other aspects of Dr Rima Nakkash' prohibition campaigns :

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

Rocket sociology : Rima Nakkash and Joanna Khalil Went to the USA (November 2009) to reveal to the world why "“waterpipe”™ "" tobacco smoking" is ""so sexy""(sic !)

After being highly carcinogenous, it is now "so sexy". That's interesting...

HALAL (licit) or HARAM (illicit) ?
A CALL TO ALL MUSLIMS OF THE WORLD
Remember our beloved Jesus Christ' words:
"Don't Be Afraid !"

Certainly, tobacco is not HALAL (licit)("kosher" for Jews). However, what is top HARAM (illicit)("Treif" for Jews) in Islam is junk science. This is because the Prophet of Islam said: Seek science from the cradle to the grave.

He didn’t explicitly mention "scientific integrity" although it’s obvious that the science the believer must seek all her(his) life is sound science, what they would call today "evidence-based" science in the field of medicine.

Therefore, true Muslims should reject all the junk science that says, as in the case of Dr Rima Nakkash from the US-American University of Beirut, citing a junk report from the World Health Organization (prepared by her colleagues of the same university… and the US-Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies …)(*), that:

"One shisha session = 10, 20, 100, 500, 900 cigarettes…”. Basta !

True Muslims should also reject cigarette junk science (particularly what you can read here and there about the so-called numerous cancers caused by passive smoking ("environmental tobacco smoke").

(*) Similarly, true Muslims should reject the junk "scientific" recommendations elaborated by the WHO "experts regarding junk vaccination and, particularly, the so-called "Swine Flu" "pandemic"). Not to mention the “Shisha and Swine Flu” scare !

Indeed, God considers junk science as Haram !

Certainly, tobacco is not mentioned in the Holy Quran as Italian experts have recently noted, stressing that “storicamente molti giuristi hanno considerato lecito il fumare” (through history, many jurists have considered that smoking is licit (Halal)). Tobacco smoking would be among “cose che provocano danno” (things that harm)(1-2) and there we stand. L’Italia è bella…

QUESTION: Since most of antismoking organizations' “science” on tobacco smoking is biased, politicised and flawed, in the name of what principle today’s US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand’s secular non-religious prohibitionists would push States (particularly in Muslim countries), to ban cigarette and shisha smoking in cafes and public parks ?

(1) Prevenzione dei danni da fumo di tabacco: un ruolo per l’islam? Tabaccologia 2007;1:20-21
(2) Holy Quran (II, 195; VII, 157).

Note: The US-Syrian anti-““Waterpipe””™ center was awarded a prize of excellent science by one institution in the United Arab Emirates. Is this a mere coincidence ?

And remember one important thing, folks ! If tobacco is neither Halal nor Haram, Honey is highly Halal (licit) !

“And thy Lord taught the Bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in (men's) habitations. Then to eat of all the produce (of the Earth), and follow the ways of thy Lord made smooth. There issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colors, wherein is healing for men. Verily in this is a Sign for those who give thought.” (Holy Quran, XVI, 68-69)

If the mixture "TOBACCO (neither Haram nor Halal) + HONEY (Halal)" is Halal or Haram is another moot question…

Image: credit usurpated by Goodhealth

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 !

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


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 !

EXPLOSIVE WORLD PREMIERE: Joint Egypt-Saudi-French Nuclear Study Establishes Hazards of Iran Mass Entertainment Weapon (Hookah Smoking)

IN MEMORY of the hundreds of thousands of people (200 000) and animals who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (*) under the nuclear fire of cowards and criminals in the US Army roaming these days in other parts of the world.

(*) Entire living cities with their children, women, men, cats and dogs, .... gardens, cafes and tea houses... have disappeared within a very short span of time…

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) !

Figure (tables) above: Activity concentration of 210Po and tobacco content in cigarette, moassel and jurak (a), 210Po activity percentage released in smoke and remained in ash and filter (b), daily and annual intake of Po-210 activity, Bq, due to cigarette, moassel and jurak smoking (c) and annual committed effective dose due to 210Po and 210Pb intake via smoking. [all rights reserved]

Image: Don’t Forget Hiroshima by Takanori Matsumoto

TITLE OF THE STUDY: Radiological hazards of Narghile (hookah, shisha, goza) smoking: activity concentrations and dose assessment.

Published in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity (1 September 2008)

Interviewed over the phone, one of the authors -who is by chance our consultant for international and scientific affairs- said he had no comment. However, we have received later this morning the following cryptical communiqué from his secretariat, apparently based on excerpts from the abstract of the study:

“The average concentrations of natural radionuclides in moassel tobacco pastes are comparable to their concentration in Greek cigarettes and tobacco leaves, and lower than that of Brazilian tobacco leaves.”

“Our study found a wide range in the radioactivity contents where the average (range) activity concentrations of 238U, 234Th, 226Ra, 210Pb, 210Po, 232Th and 40K, in Bq/kg dry weight were 55 (19–93), 11 (3–23), 3 (1.2–8), 14 (3–29), 13 (7–32), 7 (4–10) and 719 (437–1044) Bq/kg dry weight, respectively.”

So, if you are not struck by a cancer caused by hookah smoking, you will sure die of its radioactivity

However, the Observatory on Hookah or Health accessed the study and was first very impressed by the pioneering advance the work represents in the ““waterpipe””™ night. Then, we note that the study shows how the authors (*) of the erroneous Cochrane Review (the laundered recycled version of the erroneous World Health Organisation report , both supposed to be “peer-reviewed” and “gold standard” (sic) publications...) have actually invented (and published !), with others, the figure of 100 million daily hookah smokers in the word.

Nuclear study states: “It has been claimed and repeated in the open peer-reviewed scientific literature that more than 100 million people worldwide smoke narghile daily [HERE, the study refers to the erroneous Cochrane Review (*)]. However, the origin of such an estimate cannot be traced in any scientific database. As for the historical background of the narghile, it is not Indian as often stated but more probably African […]”

(*) Maziak, W., Ward, K., Eissenberg, T., 2007. Interventions for waterpipe smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst. Rev. (4) CD005549.

Since the Cochrane Review is controlled by people linked to the intolerant die-hard anti-tobacco Globalink (or Global Lynch if you prefer) network, the public could not know before of the scandal of that document and to what extent the reputation of the Cochrane Reviews has been stained. The above example is only one out of many errors. Only pire-reviewers, puppets and parrots can gloss over such a repeated scientific misconduct. Then it is mere propaganda.

Chaud-Crâne Kamal ! We love you !


PREVIOUS RELEVANT READINGS :

Bury the Peace Pipe and Dig it Up Again: Iran Between US Prohibitionism and National Sovereignty, Freedom, Dignity and Persian Art de Vivre

Syria, Iran and the Threat Posed by Hookah Smoking to the Free Civilized World


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0% TAR ? How Censorship and Confusion Are Leading to Misregulation of Hookah Tobacco-Molasses Products

Our friend and personal consultant has written an open letter to the Swiss OFSP (Office Fédéral de Santé Publique)[Federal Public Health Office]. He invites its director to urgently update all the documentation related to the communication of tar yields by importers and retailers of hookah/narghile/shisha tobacco-based products.

[Note (added Sept 1, 2008): OFSP has now contacted the author of the Letter himself and endorsed his suggestions. The Observatory on Hookah or Health hails such a constructive scientific debate]

Image : courtesy of mrwaterpijp

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Pakistani-French Team Publishes Historic Study on Hookah Smoking and Cancer

Interviewed over the phone, one of the authors -who is by chance our consultant for international and scientific affairs- said he had no comment. However, we have received later this morning the following cryptical communiqué from his secretariat:

What may happen to exclusive/ever users who, for decades, have been smoking: “only hookah (no cigarettes, bidis, etc.), prepared between 1 and 4 times a day with a quantity of up to 120 g of a tobacco-molasses mixture each (i.e. the tobacco weight equivalent of up to 60 cigarettes of 1 g each) and consumed in 1 to 8 sessions” ?

The answer can be found online, and for free, with the Harm Reduction Journal in which the study was published:

http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/5/1/19

Ad hoc linguistic versions are available for your friends who cannot read English (not a crime but a world norm !): Chinese Spanish French Arabic Russian English

Therefore, we understand that this unexpected original study, the first ever done on this issue, confirms the findings of a previous one commented in our columns one semester back:
Revelations about Hookah and Cancer

We have also noted that the new study contains even more satanic verses about Hookah and Passive Smoking Such a metaphor refers to the scientific findings published in early studies (Fifties, Sixties, etc.) led by the most prestigious and independent tobacco experts of the world (Ernest Wynder, Dietrich Hoffmann, and many others).

Nonetheless, these official documents have been systematically swept under the carpet by the WHO (Word Health Organization) ““waterpipe””™ “experts, particularly Wasim MAZIAK, Thomas EISSENBERG and Kenneth WARD, who are, as our returning visitors now know, authors of a series of other "historic" reports: 7 FATAL Errors in WHO report

Cochrane Review Scientific Credibility Stained by "Waterpipe"™ Group

Most recently, they have tried to sell to the drugged planet the huge scientific fraud about Hookah "Passive Smoking" ("Environmental Tobacco Smoke") in the name of which assaults on civil liberties have been witnessed all over the world...

Dismissing the academic and scientific work of world tobacco and cancer experts qualifies for Scientific Misconduct, not less. This fault also bears a name in biomedical edition: Publication Bias (See COPE: Code of Conduct for Editors of Biomedical Journals )

For instance, you will see in the study on Hookah Smoking and cancer how Dr Angel ROFFO’s pioneering study on the narghile filter was NOT cited by Robert PROCTOR in a “review” of his work supposed to be comprehensive.

The historic study warns however: “If traditional hookah smoking, as exemplified by the Pakistani context, has fewer carcinogenic effects than cigarette smoking, it is important to bear in mind that it still produces smoke. What is hazardous with tobacco use is the smoke, not the tobacco itself. In other words, smoked tobacco is much more dangerous than tobacco used in other forms as renowned scholars have early warned…”

So, folks, take care because the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is not, unlike Hookah “Passive Smoking” , any human invention. Just keep in mind that: BREATHE IS LIFE (*) as our friend has been recalling -againt the enemies of public health- for one decade now.

(*) note that this motto -as well as the "Tobacco Control" phrase- have sometimes been tarnished by hardline anti-tobacco organizations.

Image: courtesy of Paktribune

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[MATERIAL ADDED 19 SEPT 2008]

SUBJECT: VIOLATION OF EDITORIAL ETHICS BY JPMA (JOURNAL OF PAKISTAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION)

The authors of the first etiologic study on hookah and cancer were not allowed by the above journal to respond to a Letter to the Editor by Wasim Maziak. Fortunately, they had the opportunity to do this with the other journal in which they published their second study (Harm Reduction Journal, a truly independent journal, which does not accept any external pressure):

The authors stated: "We were informed only by chance of the existence of a previous comment by Maziak on our first study. Consequently, we sent a detailed response to JPMA on the 7th of April 2008. In spite of our good faith, and for some unclear, reason, the journal did not accept to publish our short and right-to-the-point letter whereas it published Maziak’s comment with no delay. This is certainly a violation of editorial ethics [5]."

[5] 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”

SOURCE: REBUTTAL: INTRODUCTORY KEY-POINTS to Our Reply to Purported “Methodological Problems…” (16 June 2008)

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