Lebanese Narghile Tobacco Kontrol Sex Maniacs Strike Again !

In a new article published in antismoking journal Tobacco Kontrol, sex maniacs of the $ 3 million funded US American University of Beirut suggest (this is not the first time) to use that image (left) as a prevention tool...

Nakkash R, Khalil Joanna. Health warning labelling practices on narghile (shisha, hookah) waterpipe tobacco products and related accessories. Tob Control 2010 19: 235-239.

Yet, there is absolutely no scientific evidence of an effect of ««waterpipe»»™ smoking on fertility. A sterile argument indeed ! The Egyptian study (Inhorn et al.) the sex maniacs usually cite in the dark corners of their antismoking literature doesn't establish, in a way or another, the claimed effects.

RELEVANT READINGS (tightly connected)

Khalil J, Heath RL, Nakkash RT, Afifi RA. The tobacco health nexus? Health messages in narghile advertisements. Tob Control. 2009 Oct;18(5):420-1.

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

Rima Nakkash & Joanna Khalil. Waterpipe tobacco smoking : what''s so sexy ? 137th American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting and Expo " Water and Public Health ", Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 7-11 November 2009,

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

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

Shrewd KNOL: 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).

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!

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

(*) “How are you” (in Arabic) ?

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

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

This isn't all. Listen to other claims:

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

Observatory: ????

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

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

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

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

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

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

Did’nt you realize you parrot, that :

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

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

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

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

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

CONCLUSION

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

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

RELEVANT READINGS

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

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

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

Ashtray Blog and E-Cigarettes

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

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

YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there!

LEBANON: New US Interference in Home Social & Cultural Affairs in the Name of the WHO FCTC (Framework Convention for Tobacco Control)

First 190 words tapped from the Knol Hotline

"Beirut: “A smoking ban in public places is expected to take effect within a year, George Saadeh, head of the National Tobacco Control Program announced at a debate on tobacco control held at American University Beirut (AUB) Tuesday”[1] .

It was a great show indeed, reminiscent of crowds acclaiming other assaults on liberties during World War II: “AUB students, gathered to hear the keynote speaker, greeted the announcement [i.e. the Prohibition of smoking (cigarettes and narghile) in cafes, restaurants, fines for whom break the law] with overriding support”.

The Daily Star article does not mention the existence of a study behind the show at the US-American University of Beirut. It was recently published in the antismoking Tobacco Control journal and its authors are Georges Saade, Andrew Seidenberg, Vaughan Rees, Zaher Otrock and Gregory N Connolly. Its is titled “Indoor secondhand tobacco smoke emission levels in six Lebanese cities” and obviously aims to be the main "scientific evidence" to justify tobacco smoking Prohibition in Lebanon, in a scenario very similar to neighbouring Syria (see related Knol on Smoking Prohibition in Syria). Interestingly, the latter, as a model, is cited by the authors...[2]."

References (as provided from the source of the wire):

[1] Simona Sikimic. Smoking ban in public spaces expected within a year. The Daily Star, Thursday, April 08, 2010)

[2] Saade G, Seidenberg AB, Rees VW, Otrock Z, Connolly GN. Indoor secondhand tobacco smoke emission levels in six Lebanese cities. Tob Control 2010;19: 138-142.

Globalink-affiliated US Pharmaceutical-Industry funded Prohibitionist Envoys (from Harvard University) hand in hand with Globalink-affiliated US-American University of Beirut ““Waterpipe”” Prohibitionist outpost in the Middle East, measure tobacco passive smoke (“second-hand smoke”) in 28 Lebanese hospitalities during the stuffy holy Ramadan month. Then, publish biased data in antismoking Tobacco Kontrol journal

This is not all. They had the cheek to issue serious warnings whose tone sounds like those directed to Iran to dismantle its traditional Mass Entertainment Weapons

Quotations tapped from the Knol Hotline :

“The study reads from the onset: "To date, Lebanon has failed to enact comprehensive clean indoor air laws despite ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) […] Despite ratification of the FCTC in 2005, both cigarette and water-pipe smoking are commonly practised in enclosed public places throughout Lebanon, leading to unsafe levels of indoor particulate pollution. Smoke-free policies are needed in Lebanon […] "

CONCLUSION

To Prohibitionist Yankees:

One thing only: Go Home, Hands Off Lebanon and Leave Lebanon in Peace !

To Lebanese Patriots:

1) Demand the withdrawal of Lebanon from the imperialist anti-democratic WHO FCTC (Framework Convention for Tobacco Control) !

2) Disseminate the corresponding historic speech

3) Resist US interference in your social and cultural affairs !

4) Demand accountability and the reimbursement of the public money granted to experts for providing the pseudo-scientific "haram"/"treif" studies against the national interest and for the direct benefit of pharmaceutical companies !

Christians, Jews and Muslims of Lebanon, Unite against "Haram" "Treif" Science !

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

Christian sisters and brothers say to all Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Communists, Hinduists, Taoists, etc. of the world : “Don’t Be Afraid” (our Lord Jesus) !

and remember:

Seek [good, sound] science from the cradle to the grave !

Not Bad science, pseudo-science, junk science which are an insult to Religion !

RELEVANT READINGS

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)

The Syrian Ban on Smoking in Hospitality Venues (Cafes, etc.) :The Challenge of Scientific Integrity

Prohibition Through the Hookah Looking-Glass (historical speech with a call to States to withdraw from the FCTC)

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

Sex Maniacs in French Antismoking Organizations Abuse of Public Money

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

Antismoking SEX MANIACS Strike Again in EGYPT : Fatimah El-Awa & WHO “Framework Convention for Tobacco Control”

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

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

YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there!

Hookah (Hubbly-Bubbly) Apartheid in South Africa and Pr Yussuf Saloojee’ Striking Bias (Videos)

This is a comment on a South African Story by Kate Barry (producer) & Devi Sankaree Govender (presenter) titled Hubbly Bubbly, recently broadcasted by the “Carte Blanche Medical Show (South Africa Channel), dated Apri l 4, 2010:

 Featuring are two great antismoking scholars: Pr Angela Mathee (Medical Research Council, South Africa) and Pr Yussuf Saloojee (National Council Against Smoking, South Africa) and a member of the world antismoking Globalink Secret Society.

If you click on the small photograph of Pr Yussuf Saloojee there (not on the big one which is based on an interview with Pr Angela Mathee), you will be able to watch and hear terrific things in an interview with him.

Interestingly, one comment there reveals that Pr Yussuf Saloojee wrote in Tobacco Control (the world main propagandistic antismoking journal with which he is affiliated as Region Editor for Africa):

"It is only after the advent of cigarettes that the epidemic of tobacco-related diseases took off. Previously, people had used snuff, cigars and pipes for 500 years with comparative safety (Res Adv Alcohol Drug Problems. 1976;3:1–47)"(source)

QUESTION: So what, Pr Saloojee, the five centuries old “hubbly bubbly” would not be a "pipe" like other pipes. We have never seen likes of Pr Saloojee or his colleague Pr Angela Mathee comparing pipes or cigars with 100 cigarettes. Why is this ? Would pipes or cigars be acceptable because they are viewed as “European” while the “Middle Eastern” hookah would be seen as alien to South Africa ?

A strange reaction indeed which is very reminiscent of recent smoking related xenophobic interventions elsewhere, and of a similar interview by ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) aiming to justify the UK Ban on smoking. The invited antismoking ““waterpipe””™ experts were, by that time, Wasim Maziak and Alan Shihadeh, Globalink Secret Society s'c olleagues of Pr Saloojee.

We won't comment this time on all the pseudo-scientific hackneyed parotting stuff (about nicotine, tar, etc.) there. For future accountability (hopefully soon in an international court), don’t miss however the following delicious quotations:

The "Horiba" trademark stands for "horrible results"...
”We then asked a young hubbly smoker to do the same thing. A bagful of hubbly smoke was attached to the machine and the results were dramatic. The digits continued climbing until the CO levels were out of range - over the limit of 500 - and the Sulphur Dioxide level was 10 parts per million."


Prof Angela Mathee (Medical Research Council): “The youngest child we saw was two years of age, smoking a hookah pipe with his mother”

Prof Mathee: “And so the volume of carbon monoxide that you take in is huge. And of course carbon monoxide is the same thing you use when you want to commit suicide. You attach a hosepipe to your car's exhaust system and you sit in the car and it is the carbon monoxide that kills you.”

Pr Yussuf Saloojee (Executive Director: National Council Against Smoking): “It's got nicotine in it. It has got carbon monoxide, which is a poison [and] which comes out of motor car exhausts. It has got things like arsenic, which is used as a rat poison. It has got lead. It has got chromium. So it has got most of the dangerous chemicals in tobacco smoke and, as a result, people who use hookahs can get almost all the same diseases that you get from smoking cigarettes.”

Pr Saloojee: “A person who uses hookah is at increased risk of getting lung cancer, increased risk of getting bladder cancer and mouth cancers [check out the too big lie there] . The same cancers are also caused by cigarette smoking. You are more likely to get heart disease. We know that even after one single session of using a hookah, if you measure people's heart rate you'll see the heart rate has gone up. That's because the nicotine makes the heart work harder [please don't burst out laughing !]"

Sally Thorp, Head of Life Talk: "It's becoming a bigger issue as well because younger siblings... we have seen a photograph of a three-year-old smoking hubbly! And then teens... we got an email from a teen saying it is so funny, because she blows instead of sucks.” RELEVANT SOURCES

Hookah, Pseudo-Science and Xenophobia 

The Middle East Peace Pipe (Scientific & Ethical Issues)

REMINDER

We have provided the public with the full names of the individuals involved in the criticized material. The reason is that these individuals have made either oral public declarations or published (that is: made public) written articles. Since the criticized materials are part of permanent attack on sound science and the credibility of public health intervention, these people must therefore be accountable for what they say (in public). See our policy of scientific criticism.


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 !