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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Fighting Prohibition, its Commercial Interests & the Passive Smoking Fraud : Hookah “Smoking Ban Debate Rages On” in Chapel Hill, NC (ABC)

__
Chapel Hill, NC (ABC): "Adam Bliss, the owner of Hookah Bliss, says the law is unfair, and is threatening his business of two-and-a-half years." […] "Bliss says he will fight the ban all the way to court."

Full Story (plus video) HERE

RELEVANT READINGS

Hookah Bliss 'to stay open' (Herald Sun)

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

Is Medical Concern about Hookah Environmental Tobacco Smoke Hazards Warranted ? [A Tribute to Gian Turci, who has recently passed away] The Open General & Internal Medicine Journal 2009; 3:31-3.

Hookah (Shisha, Narghile) Smoking and Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS). A Critical Review of the Relevant Literature and the Public Health Consequences. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2009; 6(2):798-843.

UK Ban on Smoking in General and on Hookah Smoking in Particular Should Not Stay. RR, British Medical Journal 2009 (18 Mar)


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Shoe Throwing Journalist and World Hero Muntazer Al-Zaidi, Harbinger of Coming Hookah Hurlers ?

Muntazer, the Iraqi Living Spirit of French May 68
PROJECT: A letter to French President Nicolas SARKOZY to ask him to award Muntazer Al-Zaidi the Legion of Honor and appoint him Minister of National Identity.

“A journalist hurled two shoes at President George W. Bush on his farewell visit to Iraq on Sunday, highlighting hostility still felt toward the outgoing US leader who acknowledged that the war is still not won.
Muntazer al-Zaidi jumped up as Bush held a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, shouted "It is the farewell kiss, you dog" and threw his footwear”
(Baghdad, AFP Dec 14, 2008).

« While Bush successfully ducked, Muntadar al-Zeidi’s accompanying remarks must be entered in the TV Hall of Fame as well and admired for brevity, although most of the news accounts truncated them, and distorted them. He [Muntazer] said: "This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog," Steven Lee Myers of The New York Times reported in a pool report to the White House press corps.

Myers reported that when the man threw the second shoe, he added: "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." Needless to say outrage over Iraqi victims of this war has been missing in most of the media for most of the war.”

SOURCE: Journalist Confronts Bush In Baghdad With EMMY-Winning Throw (Danny Schechter)

"Bush: One of the Worst Disasters to Hit the US"
> Most famous VIDEO of the world (in any case, for the -always forgotten- rest of the planet)

> Muntazer (“Muntathar”) being beaten (with a broken arm and in hospital ?):

“Muntathar means "awaited" in Arabic [!] referring to Imam AlMahdi and since we are in it, he was kidnapped by AlMahdi army [Note: a Shii militia] at November 2007 and tortured then released after paying the ransom and some say he didn't pay any ransom.”

See The Sacred Shoe (by Last-of-Iraqis, the blog of an Iraqi dentist)

CALL TO NEW US PRESIDENT
Mr Obama, if you were sincere (and we believe you were and still are) and if you don’t want to be the unfortunate target of some angry hookah hurler in the future, you know what all peoples of the world expect from you right now:

Stop civilian bloodshed everywhere by a quick withdraw of all your troops, not only from Iraq but also from Afghanistan and other places. Right ? Put also an end to all embargos implemented in the past (that on Iraq itself has caused a death toll of over 1 million civilians). This way, Mr Obama, crowds will be throwing at you roses everywhere you go.

[added Jan 2, 2009] No need to waste more time ! We’ve got the deceiving response now:
Obama's Silence on Gaza is Deafening (Ben Cohen: Dec 29, 2008)
As War Ravages Gaza, Silent Barack Works on Golf Game (Jason Ditz: Dec 30, 2008)

THE SCIENTIFIC MEDICAL EVIDENCE SUPPORTING MR MUNTAZER AL-ZAIDI’ STATEMENT ABOUT IRAQI WIDOWS AND ORPHANS
"This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq !" (Muntazer Al-Zaidi)

A study published in the Lancet in 2004 found that “100000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq” [1][that is, up to the date of the study: September 2004]”. The researchers also found that “most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children”[1].

Our consultant for scientific and international affairs had once the opportunity to comment on this study: “However, another important question deals with the parties directly responsible for the gloomy situation in the Middle East. What about the destruction of dozens of thousands of lives in the name of freedom and democracy ? Some researchers, not necessarily native of the region we are talking about, while sitting comfortably in front of our computers, have recently acted with moral gumption to tackle this taboo issue, the third one [1].”[2]

In a second study less than 2 years later, the same medical team found that “as of July, 2006, there have been 654 965 (392 979-942 636) excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, which corresponds to 2.5% of the population in the study area”[3].

[1] Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey. Lancet. 2004 Nov 20-26;364(9448):1857-64.
[2] What Taboo Research Areas in Middle East Health ? E-Letter to the Editor of the British Medical Journal 2006 (1 Dec). A critical analysis of: Maziak W. Health in the Middle East. BMJ 2006;333;815-816.
[3] Burnham G, Lafta R, Doocy S, Roberts L. Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey. Lancet. 2006 Oct 21;368 (9545):1421-8.

The Anthropological Evidence that Asian and African Peoples Love Peace-Minded US-Americans and Vice-Versa
For 10 years now, US Citizens are mad about the Oriental way of smoking, passing time and socialising: hookah smoking.

The Rising Allure—and Danger—of Hookah, by Lindsay Lyon (US News & World Report, Posted January 2, 2008)
What’s smokin’: water pipes, by Janet Cromley for Los Angeles Times (Nov 12, 2007)

So, please ask your President-Elect to go Iran, India, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan, Syria, and Venezuela and Cuba also, etc. and establish a definitive sustainable World Peace there by sharing a few hookah puffs with his counterparts. Indeed hookah (narghile, shisha) happened to be more than the Middle East Peace Pipe. Just like Muntazer Al-Zaidi is not a Middle East hero but a world hero, the hookah is the World Peace Pipe. This is an anthropological truth. Read seminal visionary article:
« La nargileo, pac-pipo de la Meza Oriento : Antropologia Interpreto pri gxia Interparolada, Tempa kaj Luda Aspektoj »
[Narghile, Peace Pipe of the Middle East: an Anthropological Interpretation of its Conversational, Temporal and Ludic Aspects]

OTHER RELEVANT RESSOURCES
“I don’t advocate violence, even in response to violence, much less as substitution for words, and yet it seems to me that al-Zeidi has restored the good standing of journalists in the world. He’s punctuated his brief editorial with a statement in the universal language of television. A cream pie would have helped but would probably have tipped off the Secret Service to his plans. With the toss of two shoes, this journalist communicated more honest information to more people than a thousand New York Times exposes on aluminum tubes or expert commentaries on the Pentagon paid for by the Pentagon.”

“… I recall these two actions only because it occurs to me that people often walk by the White House with shoes on their feet that could perhaps be put to better use.”
SOURCE: David Swanson, from Let’s Try Democracy

+++++++++
“The brave Iraqi journalist Montadhar Al-Zaydi has shown to the world the emperor is naked. He’s been now taken hostage in his own country by the sectarian Quisling government of the Green Zone. Not only should he be released immediately; he must be honoured by any decent human being as a hero. Please, sign this petition in his favour now”
SOURCE: Gabriele from The Cat’s Dream

+++++++++
“Muntazer al-Zaidi's was a J'accuse! for the Iraq genocide, a J'accuse! of an entire People against an ongoing genocide and the silence and hypocrisy around it. The entire world could understand those words, those shoes and their meaning; the entire world but Jonathan Steele, who seems to be on the Moon.”
SOURCE: Gabriele Zamparini

+++++++++
Across the US, many people have begun displaying old shoes as a sign of solidarity with al-Zaidi . Shoes are being hung on mailboxes, put out on posts, mounted on pickup trucks, and allegedly also being mailed to the White House"...

+++++++++
Iraqi who threw shoes at George Bush hailed as hero - Times Online

Happy New Year 2007 ! Welcome to the Empire of Global Lies, Hatred, Online Horror and on the Air !

100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, says study (The Lancet)

Just Foreign Policy (Iraqi Death Estimate)

Iraq Body Count

Shoes Remindful of a Narghile near the Syrian Border…

(source AP/Swissinfo.org, 24 May 2004): All these nice people, including the baby, were killed during this wedding ceremony in the village of El-Qaim, near the Syrian border after the invaders shelled this "den of terrorists". The following day, observers could see pieces of a broken lute and fragments of narghiles scattered here and there...

Images (3 former) : Courtesy of Uruknet and The Sacred Shoe

[note: updated Dec 17, 18, 19]

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In Rare Historic Video Interview, Prominent Public Health Scholar in France Smokes Out Truth and Nothing But Truth about Tobacco & “Second-hand Smoke"

Original post in French (French side of the Observatory on Hookah and Health):

“Toute la vérité, rien que la vérité” sur le tabac et le «tabagisme passif». Le courage multidisciplinaire et indiscipliné d’un savant hors du commun

>> (automatic) English translation: PRESS HERE

This scholar is also behind a recent public call (advertized in our columns): Two Prominent Public Health Scholars on Alcohol & Tobacco Policies Warn: Moral Hygienism, State Puritanism or Industrial Lobbies ?

Notably, this scientist is also the founder of the first learned society for the scientific study of tobacco and addiction (“tobaccology”) (President 1982-2004).

Bravely, he has published a critique of the European expert report on environmental tobacco smoke titled « Lifting the smokescreen, 10 reasons for a smokefree Europe », noting, in particular, that out of the 5863 deaths "caused" by «second-hand smoke » (according to the report), 1114 are related to non-smokers…"

His motto: "1000 morts sont 1000 de trop." “La vérité sur le sur le tabagisme passif devrait suffire”.

French original : check out copy on Pénombre (how figures shape society)
>> (automatic) English translation: PRESS HERE


Verbatim transcription of the original (French) interview

English Human translation of the verbatim transcription (English)

performed free of charge, "for the cause", by Iro CYR at http://www.cagecanada.ca


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

Image (left, top): Fairy Nicotine, by Louis-Philippe Hébert, 1902. Laiton patiné, 47 × 21 × 13 cm. Collection : Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 99.352. Photograph: Patrick Altman. Also on cover of book: Catherine FERLAND (Ed.): Tabac & Fumées. Regards multidisciplinaires et indisciplinés sur l’histoire du tabagisme, XVe-XXe siècle, Québec, Presses de l’Université de Laval (coll. Intercultures), 2007.

Image (left, bottom) : The Truth climbing out of the well with a whip in her hand to castigate mankind (Jean-Léon Gérôme, XIXth Century). Courtesy of: Dompteur de fauves

Image (right): The "Nicotine Addiction" (Surgeon General, 1988) dogma which has paralysed tobacco research for two decades now.


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Cochrane 2007 Review Masquerade on ““Waterpipe”™ Smoking Cessation” (Wasim Maziak, Thomas Eissenberg, Kenneth Ward) Is Summertime Blues !

COMMUNIQUE (29 October 2007):

"The Cochrane 2007 Review Masquerade on ““Waterpipe”” Smoking Cessation (by Wasim MAZIAK, Kenneth WARD and Thomas EISSENBERG), its By-Products and the Suspect Unbalanced Focus on ““Waterpipe”” Smoking vs. Cigarette Smoking"

QUOTATIONS:

"I'm gonna take two weeks, gonna have a fine vacation; I'm gonna take my problems to the United Nations [...] Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do; But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues"
(Eddie Cochran, rock’n’roll singer of the fifties, Summertime Blues) LISTEN AND WATCH SUMMERTIME BLUES HERE !

"The Cochrane Library contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. It includes reliable evidence from Cochrane and other systematic reviews, clinical trials, and more. Cochrane reviews bring you the combined results of the world’s best medical research studies, and are recognised as the gold standard in evidence-based health care." (The Cochrane Library)

NEW FINDINGS: World ““Waterpipe”™ Experts” ready to envisage Bupropion (Zyban) for Treatment of “Waterpipe”™ “Addicts” !

also: "Evidence-based information about waterpipe’s addictive and harmful properties should be developed and disseminated in order to deglamourise and denormalise its use".

THE BIG QUESTION: "Deglamourise" and "denormalise" hookah, narghile and shisha or the cumulating related pseudo-science funded by US tax-payers' millions of dollars ?

More in: FULL COMMUNIQUE HERE (includes translation into French). Once again, hidden conflicts of interest in a "gold standard" (Cochrane claims this) "study", meta-errors in a high-sounding meta-analysis (by Neergaard and coll.), etc., etc., etc.

READ ALSO: Healthy brave emerging counter-literature from great academics of the world:

1) Pr Carl P. (Alberta). Warning: Anti-tobacco activism may be hazardous to epidemiologic science. Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations 2007 (22 Oct);4:13.
http://www.epi-perspectives.com/content/4/1/13 (full text free)

2) Pr James E. (California). Defending legitimate epidemiologic research: combating Lysenko pseudoscience. Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations 2007 (10 Oct);4:11
http://www.epi-perspectives.com/content/4/1/11 (full text free)

3) Pr Michael S. (Boston). Is the tobacco control movement misrepresenting the acute cardiovascular health effects of secondhand smoke exposure? An analysis of the scientific evidence and commentary on the implications for tobacco control and public health practice. Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations 2007 (10 Oct);4:12
http://www.epi-perspectives.com/content/4/1/12 (full text free)

See also the tremendous sites of the above authors:

The Rest of the Story:Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary (Pr Michael S., Boston)

Scientific Integrity Institute (Pr James E., California)

The Tobacco Harm Reduction project (Pr Carl P., Alberta)


4) POWERFUL BOOK written by two professors from Tel Aviv Universities: Hanan F. and Reuven D.: A Critique of Nicotine Addiction. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.

A key-book to understand why the dependence on hookah is so mysterious. Note: often censored. This book concludes that "on present evidence, there is every reason to reject the generally accepted theory that nicotine has a major role in cigarette smoking. A critical examination of the criteria for drug addiction demonstrates that none of these criteria is met by nicotine, and that it is much more likely that nicotine in fact limits rather than facilitates smoking." ORDER HERE

Image: courtesy of Buddy Holly Live

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Video: Smoking (or Banning Smoking...) Can Really Damage Your Health !

Also note that if you smoke other things while on the balcony with your colleagues (e.g. a hookah…), then, when you reach the ground and you are crushed, you are also mashed by the glass base sheriffs of your pipe…

IN FRENCH: Video: Fumer (ou interdire de fumer...) peut être très dangereux pour la santé !

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