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.


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Swine Flu Epidemic: Hookah Smoking Huge Aggravating Factor !

Quit Hookah Now ! Because medical reports from many countries are multiplying:

India : Contagious Hookah Lounges Can Easily Spread Swine Flu

Bahrain : Swine Flu : Sheesha Smokers at High Risk

and closer to our free democratic civilized world and cherished England : where the BBC recently reported: " Shisha 450 Times Worse than Cigarettes, New Research Reveals. Swine Flu Link Now Established"

RELEVANT READINGS

“Furthermore, Ex-HHS Secretary Mike O. Leavitt refused to provide BIRD FLU VACCINES created by contract with Sanofi-Pasteur to rogue "terrorist" nations like Iran, North Korea, and Syria solely because the VACCINE could be used as a "BIOLOGICAL WEAPON" by "terrorist nations"” Download the full report submitted to the FBI: here

The Flu Case (Jane Burgermeister's Official Site)

Read also what brave doctors say: here (video)

Read Critique about a Previous Case sold by WHO a few years ago:

Dr Marc GIRARD: World Health Organization Vaccine Recommendations: Scientific Flaws, or Criminal Misconduct. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 2006;11(1):22-3.

"While much information concerningWorld Health Organization WHO) recommendations on vaccines, particularly against Hepatitis B, remains secret, there is sufficient evidence in the open literature to suggest scientific incompetence, misconduct, or even criminal malfeasance. The benefits are overstated and toxicity greatly understated. Influenza vaccine recommendations falsely imply that the available vaccines could help prevent avian influenza". >>>>> Download HERE


Image: courtesy of Fluscam (copyright here)

[update September 25 (two above paragraphs)]

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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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Go Syria This Summer to Attend US-Course in US-English by World US and US-Supported ““Waterpipe””™ Experts and Earn US $ 500 !

The members of the US-SCTS (joint US-Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies) “are pleased to announce their first International Summer Program for Tobacco Control Research” in Aleppo (Syria) from the 13th to the 17th of July 2008 (announcement: HERE). This is an invitation open to moneyless tobacco researchers from the poor countries of the region.

First off, let’s recall the mission and role of this joint US-Syrian organisation. Its official public image (logotype above) is clear enough, isn't it ? If not, more details can be found HERE and elsewhere on this site. In brief, the US-SCTS was assigned the task of taking up the challenge the USA is facing with ““waterpipe””™ smoking: a real virus in Bush' family land…

Apart from “leading research” by those principal investigators who succeeded in inventing hookah (Shisha, Narghile) «Passive Smoking» , narghile automatic smoking , the official Indian origin of the narghile, and could not distinguish between a tobacco burning process and a heating one ( 7 FATAL Errors in WHO report ), here is below an overview of “current trends” in international research directly inspired by the world ““waterpipe””™ experts'.

QUOTEWORTHY (we just limit ourselves to quoting. We are of course not responsible for these scientific "findings". We apologize if some of the readers may find them offensive) :

“Waterpipe tobacco should be monitored in the Arabic speaking population and other potential at-risk populations to help identify emerging trends”
SOURCE: 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. From Australia (“Health Promotion Service, Population Health, Sydney South West Area Health Service, New South Wales”).

"Being male, older, unmarried, and non-Middle Eastern White predicted current cigarette smoking; being Arab or Chaldean and having less formal education predicted current water pipe use."
SOURCE: Jamil H, Templin T, Fakhouri M, Rice VH, Khouri R, Fakhouri H, Al-Omran H, Al-Fauori I, Baker O. Comparison of Personal Characteristics, Tobacco Use, and Health States in Chaldean, Arab American, and non-Middle Eastern White Adults. J Immigr Minor Health. 2008 Mar 3.

“Arab ethnicity and cigarette smoking were the strongest predictors of argileh use; however, a substantial percentage of non-Arabs and nonsmokers also had tried argileh”.
SOURCE: Grekin ER, Ayna D. Argileh use among college students in the United States: an emerging trend. J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2008 May;69(3):472

The US-Syrian organizers of the event will offer a “fellowship” of US $ 500 for each accepted English-speaking participant from the Arab world. The course will be delivered in plain US-English. Arabic is unfortunately not available anymore in modern Syria probably because of the remodelling of the region (see present US President’s vision for a “Great Middle East”).

Of course, all the 5 days will be dedicated to ““waterpipe””™ smoking since it is the very US-SCTS’ “raison d’être” (keep in mind the logo above). However, further to growing critiques, an “effort” was made to play down such an open stance since Arab populations are said to be “susceptible” (according to Neo-conservative newspeak). The 3 first days are therefore announced under general tobacco research themes. Anyway, the 4th day will be officiously dedicated to...:

“SPECIAL FORMS OF TOBACCO USE: WATERPIPE”

Alan SHIHADEH (from US-American University of Beirut, like Monique CHAAYA, the 1st Day)(caution: AUB is not the Arab University of Beirut) will show participants how to modelize ““waterpipe””™ smoking thanks to a “realistic” machine based on a not less realistic smoking “topography” (171 puffs of 0.53 litre, 2.6 s duration and spaced 17 seconds. Critique: HERE).

Do you know what the most brilliant and independent tobacco researchers of the world think of these kind of smoking machines ? A huge obstacle for the understanding of what a tobacco user really inhales….

Fouad HAMMAL and Satish KEDIA (University of Memphis, USA) will inform the public on the existence of “qualitative methods” for ““waterpipe””™. Have a foretaste of their qualitative quality...:

Biomedical Fitna in the Eyes of Little Red Riding Hood. Neo-Orientalism, Symbolic Violence and Intolerance in Research on Narghile (Hookah, Shisha)

The last day: is a “SPECIAL WORKSHOP (WRITING YOUR RESEARCH AND APPLYING FOR FUNDING)”.

Dr Wasim MAZIAK will teach the trainees the secrets of “how to publish your research”. Certainly he will introduce them to the loving family of “Tobacco Control” and “Nicotine and Tobacco Research”. These excellent, objective and independent reference journals are appreciated all over the world for their strict and in-depth peer-review process and, above all because they have never published a single error

SEE : The “Nicotine and Tobacco Research” Journal Endorses a Scientific Error as Big and Carcinogenic as a Yemeni Narghile Bowl !

For the “Tobacco Control” journal, it would need a whole conference to clarify things. Let’s just mention a “Shocking Unsubstantiated Neo-Orientalist Statement on Lung Function Discrimination (Middle East vs. European Hookah Smokers)” published in one of its recent articles (Critique: "Seven Thousand Billions of Ultra Fine Smoke Particles in a Single Hookah (Narghile, Shisha) Session and Yet its Users are Still Alive…" (Dec. 1, 2007)

Perhaps the Head of the US-SCTS will show the attendants how to prepare a WHO report (7 FATAL Errors in WHO report ) and how to recycle it should it pose some ethic or existentialist problem: Cochrane 2007 Review Masquerade on ““Waterpipe”™ Smoking Cessation” (Wasim Maziak, Thomas Eissenberg, Kenneth Ward) Is Summertime Blues !

Dr Kenneth WARD, from the University of Memphis (USA, where Dr MAZIAK has got a job, probably in reward of his hard work for the US cause against the ““waterpipe””™ invasion), will teach the audience the basics of “Applying for funding” (note: the joint US-SCTS has been funded through this channel since 2002 ).

Finally, Dr Thomas EISSENBERG, from VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University, USA), will teach “Grant writing”: a more time-consuming activity than sound research itself…

In theory, the participants should be, by the end of the week, “equipped” with the basic “knowledge” so they can convince their own Ministries of Health and Governments to issue laws against hookah and shisha smoking (particularly “passive”). They will be able to declare to the public that their ordinances are supported by “strong medical evidence”(and even “gold standard”)...

That’s all Folks ! See you there ! Perhaps this will be a happy opportunity to say "Hi !" to our Troops in their way to the supposed nuke plants in the North of Syria or, maybe farther, to Iran…

CALL: Syrians and Lebanese, Arab and non-Arab Researchers, Smokers and Non-Smokers of the World, Unite against Foreign Interventions, Fear-Mongering and Prohibitionist Doctrines in the name of Public Health!

MOTTO: No More Case for War (*) Built on Fake Reports and Studies !

(*) against so-called “Weapons of Mass Destruction” or “Mass Entertainment”…

Image: The official public logo of the US-SCTS (joint US-Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies)

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The Origin of the Hookah "Epidemic"

About a recent study :

Rastam S, Ward KD, Eissenberg T and Maziak W. Estimating the beginning of the waterpipe epidemic in Syria. BMC Public Health 2004 ; 4:32.

Clarification by an independent researcher : "This paper defends a “scenario” for the development of shisha use in Syria. According to this “scenario”, the Arab information satellite TV channels would be greatly responsible for the development of the craze. This is not true."

Please refer to last published reviews (browse this site) by this specialist to understand the complex reasons of the epidemic.


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