Devastating Hookah and Its Freedom Promises !

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Don't miss on the French side of this site :Le narghilé et les promesses de la liberté...

Hookah and its Freedom Promises. How, beyond today's obscurantist "globalization", hookah is doomed to shape our future.

The post is based on comments on a seminal article by Roger Lesgards: Résister par la création culturelle [Resisting through Cultural Creation]. Le Monde Diplomatique, Dec. 2001, page 28.

Among other worthy quotes towards the end (free translation):

Neither Coca-Cola nor jeans nor Nike [The Observatory on Hookah or Health noted that the founders of The Sacred Narghile site recently agreed on also adding : "Facebook"!], nor even the Internet, will be able to reverse the trend. Nor will those networks of satellites pouring images and sounds everywhere.

Such a tragic trend will be overcome only through our personal ability to live shoulder to shoulder with the Other [The Observatory on Hookah or Health added there: “Never forget the multi-century rite of passing the suction hose around - always to the right!” and “Never smoke alone (or not so often..)!”]. This ability just means open-mindedness and the Other as a part of ourselves…

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Syria Dismantles its Mass Entertainment Weapons ! Does Historic Ban on Smoking in Hospitality Venues Mean Secret Big Deal with New US Administration ?

Unbelievable : a KNOL on Prohibition ! Prohibition is here, says the author !(*).

"Tobacco is injurious for health and the Syrian government is right to ban smoking in certain public places. However, the recently enacted decree does not distinguish between non-ventilated, poorly and well-ventilated public areas [1]. The case of Syrian coffee houses is striking for the inconsistency and poses the question of the scientific integrity of the US and Syrian experts who touted the ban."


So what, will you bury your head in the sand ? The article concludes:

"Syrians and truth seekers of the world should encourage Bashar Al-Assad, who is also a doctor, to reconsider his decision at his earliest convenience in order to cancel the decree before popular unrest causes more problems in his country. Otherwise, we fear that critics might conclude that the US-Syrian Centre for Tobacco Studies is not anything but a Trojan horse for US tobacco prohibitionist interventionism in Syria, if not for other secret mid-term neo-conservative objectives: toppling the Syrian regime for instance…"


RELEVANT READINGS

Joanna in Wonderland. Anti-Fruit Smoking Activism at the US-American University of Beirut

UNDP Sexy Report Reveals that Shisha Poses Threat to “Human Security in Arab States” !

Hail Iranian President and his Anti-Prohibition Stance ! Support Iran’s Right to Maintain its Traditional Mass Entertainment Weapons !

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

etc, etc. (browse the index)


(*) Chaud Crâne, Kamal !


Image: Courtesy of Middle East Online

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Joanna in Wonderland. Anti-Fruit Smoking Activism at the US-American University of Beirut

Just published in the anti smoking "Tobacco Control" journal : The tobacco health nexus ? Health messages in narghile advertisements

by Joanna KHALIL (JK) and her friends (Robin L HEATH, Rima T NAKKASH, Rema A AFIFI) from the US-American University of Beirut

COUNTERPUNCH

J.K. and friends said: "Research on the narghile smoke constituents suggest it is as harmful—if not more harmful—than cigarettes"

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : This is dead convincing, particularly when one of the cited sources is the unspeakable calamitous WHO flawed report (2 errors in its first 2 sentences...). What is not notified to the reader is that this report was prepared by Alan Shihadeh, and "peer-reviewed", among others, by Ghazi ZAATARI who both are colleagues of Joanna Khalil at the US-American University of Beirut.

JK and friends : "Recently, narghile smoking has become ‘‘big business’’ and a variety of marketing techniques are being used to emphasise the enjoyable facet of smoking while disregarding its detrimental health effects."

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : This is true. See our story: CNN “Social Smoke” Business Success Story by Iranian Born Hookah Entrepreneur: Ain’t a Dig at WHO Treaty on Tobacco Control (FCTC) ?

As for the "detrimental health effects", how do you want these people to rely on the poor biased "science" produced by your university ?

JK and friends : "One interesting marketing technique has been the use of health messages to market narghile products (…) For example, in one advertisement for locally manufactured tobacco, the slogan ‘‘untouched by human hands’’ was used as an indicator of ‘‘the purity’’ of the product. In addition, the product was shown to be manufactured in state-of-the-art machines (…)".

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : Joanna, my dear, you are wrong. “‘‘Untouched by human hands’’ means that the company (Eastern Company) is actually using an automatic line based on state-of-the-art machines as you rightly point out. This is all there is to it. By contrast, the narghile smoking machine of your colleagues at the US-University University of Beirut was tampered by human hands and is actually the source of the world confusion, the well known exaggerations (1 narghile session = 100, 200, …900 cigarettes, etc.):

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

Because of their behaviour, they must be accountable for the 10-year delayed public health intervention.

JK and friends : "Simultaneously, two advertisements for a type of charcoal used to light the narghile charcoal embers were advertised as being ‘‘natural’’ and made of ‘‘100% coconut shell’’, smokeless, odourless and ‘‘free of chemicals.’’”

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : No, Joanna, a charcoal can’t be used to light the narghile charcoal embers. If you wanna become a narghile expert, first you must go downtown Beirut (Al-Hamra Street, for example) and ask the staff of any cafe there how the charcoal of a narghile is lit...

JK and friends : “One of these advertisements ends with the comment that not a single tree was cut down to produce the charcoal (fig 1). Narghile smoking is highlighted as safe and environmentally friendly. The brand name furthers this image by using the prefix ‘‘eco’’ thus conferring eco-friendly legitimacy on the image of narghile smoking."

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : So what ? These people are trying to do their best and certainly this new charcoal is safer and more environment-and-Earth-friendly than the quick-lighting one used in the biased smoking machine of your colleagues.

JK and friends : "Although the above two examples specifically mention the health aspect of narghile, other messages are more tacit. For instance, in an advertisement for a brand of mo’assel, the fruit flavoured narghile tobacco, what first hit your eye is the fresh watermelon, constituting the background of the ad (fig 2). Although the photograph of the narghile is shown on the left of the ad, the mouthwatering fruit is impossible to miss. This watermelon, and the other fruits that indicate the different available flavours, make narghile seem as healthy as the fruits."

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : Woaw ! What a breath-taking sociologist you and your friends are ! At least, instead of citing erroneous bibliographic sources to support these statements, why didn’t you review the existing sound literature ? From a prehistoric date, narghile has maintained a close relation (a love affair) with fruits. You would also have found that the word “narghile” itself derives from the name of an exotic fruit… Indeed, narghile users know this. They are the experts, not those appearing in the parroting media…

JK and friends : "As suggested by the specific examples above, the myth of the narghile smoking being less harmful than cigarette smoking is being exploited by a new tobacco industry.”

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : First, this tobacco industry is not new. It is very old. Then, the myth of narghile smoking being MORE harmful than cigarette smoking is being exploited by a recent anti-tobacco industry whose main operational base is the antismoking journal Tobacco Kontrol in which you got your paper published.

JK and friends : This new spin on the image of the narghile (…). In light of the current weak policy and regulatory framework for tobacco control in Lebanon, a serious commitment from health stakeholders and advocacy groups is mandatory to counter these false claims."

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : What is needed is countering the false claims and pseudo-science supposedly but actually deceivingly "peer-reviewed", pouring from biased antismoking journals like “Tobacco Control”.

The Middle East doesn’t need artificial wars. Aren’t you tired of wars there in Beirut ? Or we would be tempted to think that you defend foreign interests after UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) has recently considered in its last report (2009) that narghile smoking poses a threat to "Arab Human Development Security" (sic).

JK and friends : “Funding: This paper was supported by a generous grant from Research for International Tobacco Control, an IDRC secretariat.”

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : Yes, they are more and more ““generous”” as you would say. Why don’t you add that your RITC is linked to Big Pharmaceuticals ?

“It should noted, however, that among the advertised “Strategic Partners” of the latter [The “North American RITC (Research on International Tobacco Control; Canada)], the names of two multinational pharmaceutical companies appear after a list of world antismoking organisations: namely, Glaxo-Wellcome/Smith Kline Beecham and Merrck-Frost” (Revealed in “UK Ban on Smoking in General and on Hookah Smoking in Particular Should Not Stay” (Source: Lift the UK Ban on smoking)

JK and friends : “Competing interests: None”

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : In view of all the above, do you confirm ?

“Tobacco Control” Editors : “Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.”

OBSERVATORY on Hookah or Health : This is news to us. By whom ? The antismoking friends of the Globalink antismoking "model village"(sic) ? The same who "peer-reviewed" the calamitous WHO report and its recycled laundered version, the Cochrane Review?

IMAGES (commented in this article and appearing above)

Source: Joanna Khalil et al 2009 (who should have requested the permission from the "pro-smoking" "new tobacco industry" in Lebanon to reproduce them in an anti-smoking biased journal)


ACCOUNTABILITY

As a new narghile expert, Joanna KHALIL is, as all others, accountable for what she says in public (here a n official publication)


CONCLUSION

As for JK and friend's call for immediate regulation in line with the the brain Formatting Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) cooked by the same Globalink people, it is not an innocent statement. Health officials of any government will refer to this kind of "scientific" stuff to overrride their own bills and constitutions. This is also the objective of the Lisbon Treaty that any conscious citizen should reject for the same reasons.

This is a vicious circle, one of the many tricks used by antismoking organizations to maintain control over medias and governments. Also, other antismoking researchers will publish further articles citing Joanna Khalil and friends' paper. Then, they will pretend -as they have been doing with cigarette passive smoke, E-cigarette smoke, etc. - that there would be "overwhelming evidence" that narghile smoking is dangerous and must be banned. Remember the WHO slogan “Rigorous research leaves no doubt” (that tobacco second-hand smoke kills. There would be a world supranational expert consensus. You're dead and you can's utter a word of dissent.

Resist here and now !

RELEVANT ARTICLES

Narghile smoking keeps researchers in Wonderland (medical journal)

The Birth of a New Profession: Anti-Fruits Smoking Activist (Observatory)

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

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Jeremy ROSKIN & Paul AVEYARD Bashed Again for the Poor Quality of a Second «Qualitative» Study, on English and Canadian Students

My God, not less than “Publication Bias”, “Misrepresentations” and “Serious Errors” were found in Jeremy ROSKIN and Paul AVEYARD’ study on Canadian and English students' Beliefs about "Waterpipe" Smoking: BMC Public Health 2009 Jan 10;9(1):10.

QUOTEWORTHY (for the boys and girls who haven't got the time to cast a glance at the FULL CRITIQUE THERE) :

« Noteworthy, in ROSKIN and AVEYARD's paper, is the fact that 11 studies, out of the 13 ones cited and having a direct connection with the issue at stake, are from the US-Syrian Centre for Tobacco Studies. Strikingly, they all use the ""waterpipe"" (in one word) neologism which has proved to be not only a scientific nominalism but also what I named a sociological code ».

« ROSKIN and AVEYARD quote from a student having "a background in scientific education [whose] beliefs were based upon the opinion of a toxicology teacher" that "in shisha... the way it's prepared with sugar in tobacco and charcoal, glycerine burns in the head producing free radicals. These are very harmful and causing cancers"". In fact, the interviewed student is not less ignorant (regarding health effects) than the others described as unaware of the corresponding risks […] ».

« The authors wished to draw the attention of their interviewees on the "misleading" figures printed on the moassel (the hookah smoking mixture) packs: namely "0% tar, 0.5% nicotine". The authors speculate that the latter are supposed to induce and reflect the ignorance of hookah users. In fact, these figures are not less unrealistic than those advertised in ""waterpipe"" studies ».

« The authors conclude that "the current lack of health information is currently viewed as tacit official acceptance of waterpipe smoking". The misrepresentation here is that that users have seen by themselves how public health interventions have lost their credibility because of repeated publication bias and fatal errors in studies supposed to be of a high-standard […] »

This kills me !

HIGHLY RELEVANT READING: Pire-Review: Head of US-Syrian Centre Gives English Lessons to Native English ““waterpipe””™ Researchers… Watch Online the Birth of a New "Study"

Let's have a look at the end of the publication....

« Acknowledgements [:] University of Birmingham (the Arthur Thomson Travel Scholarship), London Jewish Medical Association. PA [Paul AVEYARD] is funded by the National Institute for Health Research [...] ».

Excellent, Guys ! You seem to be nice boys. Let’s see now your potential comfits of interest…

«Competing interests [:] Paul AVEYARD had served as a consultant to and received funding from McNeill AB, Xenova Biotechnology, and Pfizer for work on smoking cessation».

Humm… Humm… Humm… Humm… Humm… Humm… Humm… Humm… Humm….. STOP ! Why not be sincere and put things right: Your "smoking cessation" here is PHARMACEUTICAL cessation, based on drugs and more drugs to treat smokers as if they were sick people...

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

REMINDER: The SCIENTIFIC CRITICISM POLICY of the Observatory on Hookah or Health states that all cited individuals on this site are authors of public interventions, therefore ACCOUNTABLE (for what they say). This is why we call a spade a spade and always give the full names of authors, particulary when the matter deals with poor, pseudo or junk science.

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Mind Boggling Epidemiology and Geopolitics ! New US-Syrian ““Waterpipe””™ Study in IJTLD Regards Israel as Part of the Arab World !

Mind-Boggling Epidemiology and Geopolitics ! New US-Syrian ““Waterpipe””™ Study in “Peer-Reviewed” International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Regards Israel as Part of the Arab World and Narghile Would be a New Thing in the Latter !

NEW STUDY: Almerie MQ, Matar HE, Salam M, Morad A, Abdulaal M, Koudsi A, Maziak W. Cigarettes and waterpipe smoking among medical students in Syria: a cross-sectional study. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2008 Sep;12(9):1085-91.

QUOTES
“The recent emergence of waterpipe use in Syria and other Arab countries, and its associated claims of reduced harm, represent a new threat for tobacco control efforts in this region. Today young men and women in the Arab world are increasingly using waterpipes, a habit that they view as fashionable.10-12”

Apart from the blunder by so-called Syrians that ““waterpipe””™ would be a new thing in the region (Laugh or Cry !), d’you know what, folks ? One of the cited references (number 11) is a study by Varsano S, Ganz I, Eldor N, Garenkin M. published in Hebrew in the Harefuah journal (2003 Nov;142(11):736-41, 807). The translated title is “Water-pipe tobacco smoking among school children in Israel: frequencies, habits, and attitudes”. The authors of the cited study are actually from Israel and the study was carried out there (Meir General Hospital, Sapir Medical Center, Kfar Saba)…. Now, and very amazingly, for these Syrian researchers, Israel is a part of the Arab world....

And since we are discussing this point, let’s take the opportunity to pay a renewed tribute to two professors from Tel Aviv who have debunked the huge “Nicotine Addiction” fraud published in 1988 by the Surgeon General (USA): Pr Hanan F. & Pr Reuven D. (Tel Aviv)

WHAT ELSE ?
This US-Syrian survey is biased (no news so far, Humm…):
1. They say they have used a “standardized” ““waterpipe””™ questionnaire. By the way, how d’you say ““waterpipe””™ in Arabic ? Genevieve’s French/English/Arabic dictionary has only got one 3 entries: “narghile”, “hookah” and “shisha”. No such word as ““waterpipe””™ can be found in her guide. Perhaps obsolete... God, how did they manage with their survey there among people ?
2. They say they asked medical students about their use of cigarettes and narghile. Can’t you see where the bias lies ? If a medical student may smoke cigarettes in classrooms (if permitted), corridors or lecture halls, has anybody ever seen Middle East students puffing at the hookah in such places ? Ask any Syrian citizen and (s)he will tell you that they patronise traditional coffee houses there (outside the campus, of course). So, where is the problem ? Even when they become fully-fledged physicians, who believes that they will be smoking the narghile in their practice ?
3. They say that “about three quarters of the respondents considered the water-pipe to be more harmful than cigarettes, with no significant difference between smokers and non-smokers of either type”. And, relish also this: “[…] as more students in our study said that they thought that waterpipe smoking was more harmful than cigarettes, and their belief was not affected by their waterpipe or cigarette smoking behaviour.”

Obviously, the local health propaganda cooked by the US-Syrian Center for ““Waterpipe””™ Tobacco Studies is effective there and is performed in the Arabic language. Unfortunately, for the time being, our Observatory on Hookah or Health cannot be understood by most Syrians because it is not in Arabic ! When it is, wager that this situation gonna change !
The article concludes: “The widespread waterpipe use among students, despite their awareness of its detrimental aspects, should be a clarion call to health authorities in Syria and the Arab world to act rapidly to deal with this eminent epidemic.”

Note: Yes, “eminent” with a “e” (published this way in the study itself !). Therefore, it is an Eminent epidemic soundly analysed by Eminent ““waterpipe””™ experts…
Oh, we also have to inform you that we've been tipped off by independent Syrian doctors that there would be other bias in this survey. You will soon know about it.

CONCLUSIONS
1. A survey based on a “standardized” (sic) questionnaire, just as “standardized” as the US-American University of Beirut’s highly realistic ““waterpipe””™ smoking machine which draws one puff every 17 seconds for a full hour (with the charcoal in the same position).
New Conjuring Trick by US-American University of Beirut’s Illusionists. Tons of Aldehydes Found in Narghile (Hookah, Shisha) Smoke… You’re Dead !
May they be happy since the WHO (World Health Organization) “experts” have blessed them…
2. This publication contains a renewed attack on Middle Eastern women because they have chosen to smoke narghile and not cigarettes. See recent fear-arousing episode by Wasim MAZIAK in his Call for action:
““Waterpipe””™: Time for Action on Scientific Integrity and Accountability, Sacking, and Paying Back Funding of Useless Biased ““Waterpipe””™ Research
3. What’s all that ? Health Fascism imported in Syria ? Please help us us, Pr PROCTOR:
Robert PROCTOR: Tobacco Control is NOT Tobacco Kontrol. Man Who Forgot “Forgotten” Study by “Forgotten Father of Experimental Tobacco Carcinogenesis"

MOTTOS
!> Syrians of Syria and the World, Stand up and Resist Foreign Interventions in the Name of Public Health!
[added Oct 23] -Prohibitionism of Tobacco is Antithetic to the Cultural (incl. Religious) Values of Your Societies ! Don't Be Ashamd of this Fact but Rather Be Proud of it !
!> Write to your Leaders ! Just Say No to Prohibition and Pseudo-Science !
!> Help your Lebanese sisters and brothers to get rid of health policies based on flawed studies cooked inside the US-American University of Beirut.
!> Syrians and Lebanese, call a spade a spade and a narghile a narghile as you have always done: never a ““waterpipe””™ !
!> Reject Big Pharma interventionism through funding of ““waterpipe””™ multiplying flawed and erroneous studies !

RELEVANT READINGS
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease has recently published a study (*) in which the authors, apart from many serious errors, cite plagiarized material (reference number 5, that is Bertrand DAUTZENBERG and Jean-Yves NAU’ “book”):

(*) Prignot JJ, Sasco AJ, Poulet E, Gupta PC, Aditama TY. Alternative forms of tobacco use. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2008 Jul;12(7):718-27.

>> The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Publishes a Junk Pakistani ““Waterpipe””™ Study and another one Citing a Junk Reference
>> Plagiarism and Flavors. Bertrand DAUTZENBERG, President OFT, Comes Back with a New Definition for Shisha: a ““War to Tobacco” Tobacco Product" !
>> International Journal of Public Health Endorses Multiple Errors by US-American University of Beirut Team. Violation of Biomedical Publication Ethics

The just above mentioned study was:
> Yunis K, Beydoun H, Nakad P, Khogali M, Shatila F, Tamim H (2007). Patterns and predictors of tobacco smoking cessation: a hospital-based study of pregnant women in Lebanon. Int J Public Health 52(4):223-32.
Most of these “prestigious” researchers are from the “prestigious” US-American University of Beirut. They state, among many other errors (no critique allowed, in violation with ethics of biomedical journals) that Tunisia is a country of the Middle East !

Therefore, the ““waterpipe””™ experts, who could not distinguish between a heating and a burning process (WHO report and others), between hookah smoke and cigarette smoke, between smoking products, now show to the world, despite their numerous international contacts and huge networking facilities, that they are dead losses at geography: for Wasim MAZIAK and his colleagues, Israel is part of the Arab world and for Hala TAMIM and her fellow researchers, Tunisia is to be found in the Middle East… Published in pire-reviewed journals...

Image: courtesy of Welovepolo Welovepolo

[note: posted Oct 22, backdated 10 Oct; minor changes on Oct 23]

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““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

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Robert PROCTOR: Tobacco Control is NOT Tobacco Kontrol. Man Who Forgot “Forgotten” Study by “Forgotten Father of Experimental Tobacco Carcinogenesis"

From a dispatch received this morning from our friend:

"[...] which is why the front group FOREST (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) once offered my 1988 book, Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis, for sale as "vital" " (Robert PROCTOR)[1]

"Robert PROCTOR is the author of this month’s “Tobacco Control” Editorial [1]. He wrote in the past about what he called “forgotten” historical studies (on tobacco and cancer) and their authors [2-3].

However, what many people ignore is that he himself strangely “forgot” to mention a not-politically-correct, though-historically-correct, study by one of them (Angel ROFFO) [4] apparently because that study deals with an official “public health” smoking epidemic (i.e. ““waterpipe””) for which the above mentioned journal, among others (and together with WHO TFI, WHO TobReg, etc) has mobilised many forces."

Here a question is asked: “Is this man entitled to give us a lecture when he violates ethics in a so-called "peer-reviewed" scientific «Review», simply because a cancerologist tackled a taboo issue ?” [1]

Also relevant and officially published elsewhere: "Did we call up Great Ethics because the author (a historian of science, by the way) of a review on "the forgotten father of experimental tobacco carcinogenesis", forgot, in his turn, to mention an important study on narghile (hookah) carried on by this "father" [3]? No, we just mentioned this fact. Full stop [...]"[5]

________
References:

[1] Proctor R. On playing the Nazi card. Tobacco Control 2008;17:289-90

[2] Proctor RN. Commentary: Schairer and Schöniger's FORGOTTEN tobacco epidemiology and the Nazi quest for racial purity. Int J Epidemiol. 2001 Feb;30(1):31-4. No abstract available.

[3] Proctor RN. Angel H Roffo: the FORGOTTEN father of experimental tobacco carcinogenesis. Bull World Health Organ. 2006 Jun;84(6):494-496.

[4] Roffo AH. Sobre los filtros en el tabaquismo: el narguile y el algodon como filtro del alquitran de tabaco [Tobacco use and filters: narghile and cotton as filters of tobacco tar]. Boletin del instituto de medicina experimental para el estudio y tratamiento del cancer (Buenos Aires). 1939;16(51): 255-268.

[5] The Most Beautiful Girl in the World Cannot Give More than What She Has and the History of "Tobacco Control" Will Absolve Me (Jul 16, 2008)

Image: the Oct 2008 Tobacco Control issue.

[note1 : linguistically adapted and cross references rearranged by the Observatory on Hookah or Health]

[note2: backdated article]

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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

#######################################
[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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Hookah Bars in Paris Fight Smoking ban. Abdelkader El-Ahmer, Owner of Houara Lounge, Is a World Hero in Tobacco Prohibition Times

Comment on Hookah Bars in Paris Fight Smoking ban
By Felix BRIAUD for I.H.T. (International Herald Tribune); April 24, 2008.

> I.H.T. : “In the new nonsmoking France, where café-goers and restaurateurs have made a remarkably quiet transition to the regime of not lighting up indoors, there remains an unexpected pocket of resistance: hookah bars”

> OBSERVATORY COMMENTS: Humm... Not so “unexpected”, Sir. France is not only the country of Champaign but also that of resistance to all forms of injustice:

May 1968-2008 in Paris: Police is Here to Stay (Paris, 40 ans après Mai 68: la police (de la pensée, pseudo-scientifique, ...) est toujours là...)

> I.H.T. : “[…] The owner of one Paris hookah café says he has been on a HUNGER STRIKE for two months to protest the ban on indoor smoking, which took effect Jan. 2.”

Full story HERE: The « Anti-Tobacco » Industry Crimes. Owner of Houara Hookah Lounge in Critical State as He Enters 4th Week of Hunger Strike (March 12, 2008)

> OBSERVATORY: This man, Abdelkader EL-AHMER, has also commenced a THIRST STRIKE. He is a world hero because he has been refusing, for 2 months now, to be the victim (and even the scapegoat) of a nationwide imported ordinance based on falsification of scientific facts:

The Invention of Hookah (Shisha, Narghile) «Passive Smoking» through Repeated Scientific Misconduct and Fraud. Lebanon & Syria

“Hookah (shisha, narghile) “Passive Smoking” is a Fraud [Le «tabagisme passif» du narguilé est un leurre]

More:

Imported Prohibition is Antithetic to French Values, Experts Say. How France Bravely Resists Harsh Assaults on Civil Liberties

> I.H.T.: ”Other owners of "shisha bars," as the salons are known here, have simply chosen to break the law by continuing to offer customers tobacco in water pipes.
"We have no choice," said Badri HELOU, president of the Hookah Professionals' Union. "If we don't offer what our customers used to come for, our companies will go bankrupt."

A few streets away, facing the city's botanical gardens, the outdoor tea salon at the Great Mosque of Paris will offer hookahs outside when sunny days permit. But the mosque did not make the changes required to allow smoking indoors […]”

> OBSERVATORY: Be they a model for all shisha lounges in the United Kingdom and elsewhere ! (Another hero in the UK: Mohammed JABER: Blackburn cafe owner faces new smoking ban charge)

PROGRAM: organize and internationalize the struggle against Prohibition !

As for this MOSQUE OF PARIS, where smoking the hookah in peace is still allowed by the Secular Laws of the Republic (nay, Censors and politically correct thinkers ?) read:

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

> Tell us, folks: On which side of the Atlantic do you see intolerance and fanaticism ? Also: in scientific laboratories or religious temples ?

> I.H.T.: “The members of the union [of Hookah Professionals] are so incensed by the situation that they are thinking of going to a higher authority.
"This law is contrary to the spirit of free enterprise mentioned in the European Declaration of Human Rights," HELOU said. "We're ready to take this case to a European court."

> OBSERVATORY: Mister Badri HELOU should also add that this law is simply contrary to scientific evidence: “Hookah (shisha, narghile) “Passive Smoking” is a Fraud [Le «tabagisme passif» du narguilé est un leurre]

> I.H.T.: “To press its case, the union [of Hookah Professionals] has taken an action that could indicate the long odds in its quest to become an exception to the law. It has hired Jacques VERGÈS, a lawyer who was recently the subject of a film, "L'Avocat," and who is known for defending clients including the Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and the Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan. Vergès, a notorious figure in France, says he is dedicated to the principle of the universal right to a fair trial.”

> OBSERVATORY: So what ? Only the anti-tobacco organizations would have the right to hire prestigious lawyers ? Me Jacques VERGES is the moral honor of Human Rights France and he world Prohibition on tobacco (homes, cars, gardens, terraces, etc.) will eventually collapse.

This will make possible, at last, independent and free (from censorship, MacCarthyism, suspect funding, etc.) research on the truely hazardous effects of tobacco and the way to prevent them: harm reduction alternatives like smokeless tobacco of the SNUS type; charcoal-free No-Carbon Monoxide electronic hookah; etc.

Oh la la, la France, encore ! Exhale now !

Image : courtesy of Franca Turismo

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