[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 ACCOUNTABILITYResearchers 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 MeCRIMINALIZING DISSENT: A SPECIALITY OF THE "ANTI-TOBACCO" INDUSTRY Wasim MAZIAK’s call for action (in the Addiction journal) openly refers (n°40) to The Sacred Narghile site: “On the other side of the equation, media outlets are emerging with disguised ownership that promote the waterpipe by minimizing the evidence about its negative public health potential [40]”Almost as funny as:
“Other websites promote hookah use as chic and elegant (hookahculture.com) or as part of a unique lifestyle (insidehookah.com) and hookahs as objects of religious veneration (sacrednarghile.com)”. Source:
BACCHUS (White Paper on Hookah Use). Since Bacchus is the Greek god of wine, is this an "
Undeclared Competing Interest" ?
The owner's identity of
The Sacred Narghile (our friend Alex) has always been clearly stated since its inception 8 years ago. As for its contents, our friend and consultant for international and scientific affairs (
Chaud-Crâne Kamal !) is no secret for everybody and is recalled a hundred times there on several pages (on the CONTACT PAGE to start with !).
The edorial content is controlled by our friend just as
Simon CHAPMAN controls his journal
Tobacco Control and, in the same time [no, no... be assured that it is not contradictory !], the policy of
Globalink (or Globlal Lynch for those who know) and just as the world tobacco policy is decided by
WHO TobReg … So, no lessons of democracy to receive from killers of democracy !
Kamal answered our question with another question: “Who, other than he and his colleagues [he means Thomas EISSENBERG, Kenneth WARD and Alan SHIHADEH], with the support of WHO TobReg (*), is responsible for the delayed “public health response to this health risk” Dr MAZIAK laments this month in his tribune in the Addiction journal ?”
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001... AND THE ““WATERPIPE””™GATE [...] “This is the reward for their CALCULATED CENSORSHIP [capitals are ours] when, in the wake of September 11 [2001], they decided to rule out a [Come on kamal, THE MAJOR!] researcher in this field. This researcher had written hundreds of pages offering a sound analysis and deept insights of all biomedical and social aspects (from cancer, chemistry of smoke, dependence, to gender use, etc.), long before their black series of parroting and self-plagiarising publications which brought absolutely nothing new to the issue except a WORLD CONFUSION [capitals are ours]. I wonder if these people have ever studies tobacco science at university...."Yes, Kamal, it is clear that they have been the puppets of
WHO TobReg , the mastermind of all this scandal.
Note: Thanks to
The Sacred Narghile (the "promoter" [dix. Maziak] of ““Waterpipe””™ use in the world...) for the summary, linguistic adaptation and links. This site is indeed the
Scarecrow Narghile feared by him, WHO TobReg and their likes. Com' on, babe !
OTHER QUESTION: Is there at least ONE researcher in the world, other than our friend, who has been criticising for 8 years now the "good" "peer-reviewed" "science" of MM Wasim MAZIAK, Thomas EISSENBERG, Kenneth WARD, Alan SHIHADEH and their groupies of the "Anti-Tobacco" and Pharmaceutical Industries ? If this individual exists, then welcome to her/him !
We didn't want to respond to Wasim Maziak’ so miserable arguments (published in a so-called «peer-reviewed» journal) reflecting the dispair of his pharmaco-ideological sytem. To the new visitors, we say: browse this site and appraise by yourself the quality of their «evidence». You will see that their «evidence» is very similar to that presented to the UN Insecurity Council to justify the invasion of Iraq and slaughter its populations : 1991-2008. We will never forget, you, ugly cow-boys !OBJECTIVE OF THE ““WATERPIPE””™ PSEUDO-SCIENCE AND ITS "EVIDENCE': PROMOTING PRODUCTS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY (Big PHARMA) TO "TREAT" HOOKAH "ADDICTS"Authors of study on Hookah Smoking and Cancer officially responded (
June 17, 2008) to Wasim MAZIAK:
"Our study also states that in the light of a total lack of substantial data on “hookah addiction”: “it is certainly too early to suggest the use of Nicotine “Replacement” Therapies and products to “hookah addicts”, bupropion or even Varenicline produced by Pfizer laboratories and marketed as Chantix and Champix”. This suggestion to treat “hookah addicts” with medicines can be found in the erroneous Cochrane Review authored by Maziak, Eissenberg and Ward [30]."[30] Maziak W, Ward K, Eissenberg T: Interventions for waterpipe smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Oct 17;(4):CD005549.
#################ANNEX: WHO TobReg political and scientific DEMOCRATIC representativity:
WHO TobReg (Word Health Organisation, Study Group for Tobacco Regulation), also known as the UN Tobacco Insecurity Council : Erik DYBING (Norway; Chairman)
David L. ASHLEY (
USA)
David BURNS (
USA)
Mirjana DJORDJEVIC (
USA)
S. Katharine HAMMOND (
USA)
Jack HENNINGFIELD (
USA)
Channing ROBERTSON (
USA)
Nigel GRAY (Australia) [almost
USA]
Martin JARVIS (United Kindom)
Ghazi ZAATARI (Lebanon,
US-American University of Beirut)
K. Srinath REDDY (India)
Who dreams of such a world ? #################OTHER IMPORTANT POINT: "The great risk is that shisha, progressively, take the place of cigarettes" (*)...
A "great risk" for whom ?(*) Ask Bertrand DAUTZENBERG, president French OFT and Jean-Yves NAU, journalist with Le Monde newspaper), authors of PLAGIARIZED MATERIAL (page 58 of their “book”. A sentence put in bold characters by the authors themselves...)
(*) Communiqué :
Tout ce que vous ne pouviez pas savoir sur le livre de Bertrand DAUTZENBERG et Jean-Yves NAU : «Tout ce que vous ne savez pas sur la chicha» (8 June 2007)
So what, Dr MAZIAK ? Is ““waterpipe””™ 200 times more dangerous than cigarettes and as hazardous for health as for your personal career ? What you have been calling "the epidemic" has granted you a job in Memphis University. What else do you want ? A position in WHO TobReg ? May God help you in your great personal ambitions !#################
Images: courtesy of Get Pakistan YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there !
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