Tuesday 8 March 2011

Trickle Becomes A Flood

If I were in the drinks industry, I'd be mighty worried right now. The instances of anti-alcohol dipping into the tobacco control playbook have been coming thick and fast recently.

Yesterday, a now legendary anti-smoking mantra was rolled out, for the first time, against alcohol. Notice the similarities?

US Surgeon General Richard Carmona, June 2006

"There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke."
Professor David Nutt, March 2011

"There is no such thing as a safe level of alcohol consumption"
Using all the tricks laid out in the tobacco control template, the puritans are beginning to have a right old binge on drinkers.

H/T Belinda


17 comments:

DerekP said...

"There is no such thing as a safe level of alcohol consumption"

So, I think were all agreed then, a zero level of alcohol consumption isn't safe.


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Anonymous said...

And so the joyless juggernaut of the jobsworths rolls on, crushing all in it's path without a hint of compassion or remorse and impervious to the facts. The end justifies the means. We know what's best for you. Obey or be marginalised / disenfranchised.

If you'd told me 30 years ago that this would be the situation in UK today, I simply wouldn't have believed you. Too many people have read Orwell, I would have said. It could never happen.

It is truly frightening the road we are on. I shudder to think about the final destination.

Anonymous said...

So Prof, even in concentrations you might find in homoeopathic remedies alcohol is unsafe - and guess how most homoeopathic remedies are made - because there is "no safe level" ...
> In producing “remedies” for diseases, homeopaths use a process called dynamisation or potentisation whereby a substance is diluted with alcohol or distilled water. Three logarithmic potency scales are in regular use in homeopathy. Hahnemann created the centesimal or C scale, diluting a substance by a factor of 100 at each stage. The centesimal scale was favored by Hahnemann for most of his life. A 2C dilution requires a substance to be diluted to one part in one hundred, and then some of that diluted solution diluted by a further factor of one hundred. This works out to one part of the original substance in 10,000 parts of the solution. The end product is often so diluted that it is indistinguishable from the dilutant - (alcohol or pure water, sugar)
and I guess we had better start listing all those other "totally unsafe [Nutt Verdict 2011] substances" you can find - sherry trifle springs to mind - possibly tiramisu too - oh they are just countless - cooking sauces, there's another - straight away, so their product labels can have the requisite "contains alcohol - for which there is no safe level of consumption - use at your own risk, the manufacturer accepts no responsibility for any ill effects arising from use of this product" - or just simply ban them all ! And it is going to be quite some list !!!!

Or we could just say "Professor Nutt is a sensationalist publicity seeking idiot" and stay much as we are ...

George Speller said...

I can't wait to say "i told you so" to all my non-smoking friends.

Mark Wadsworth said...

There is no such thing as a safe level of cornflakes either, allegedly.

Dick Puddlecote said...

MW: You're right ... the salt in corn flakes can be lethal.

Anonymous said...

It won't work with alcohol. Too easy to make and impossible to ban or tax the starting ingredients (sugar and yeast).

Religion: Tobacco Smoker.

Anonymous said...

Somewhere I read that when an alcoholic beverage sits in an open container there are alcohol fumes evaporating from that container which go into the air to be breathed in around others in the vicinity and at a detriment to everyone's health.

Seriously, I have once seen this posted somewhere online.

If so, then expect Second Hand Inhalation Threat, or more precisely, S.H.I.T. - to be in the MSM soon.

Oldrightie said...

If so, then expect Second Hand Inhalation Threat, or more precisely, S.H.I.T. - to be in the MSM soon.


I thought this was a requirement to be in the MSM, Sir/Madame?

Foreign Entity said...

'Somewhere I read that when an alcoholic beverage sits in an open container there are alcohol fumes evaporating from that container....'

I vaguely remember reading somewhere on the internet that aforementioned fumes naturally gravitate towards the kindergardens and primary schools.
It was on the interwebs, must a fact!

p.s. love your blog.

Woodsy42 said...

Indeed alcohol evaporates very readily if left open, so the second hand threat is very real.
Not only that the vapour can then be absorbed by soft surfaces, like clothes, where it can lurk as a hidden danger, a third hand threat, to anyone later handling the soiled material.
If you once accept that alcohol is of itself dangerous the third hand threat is very easy to prove.
I need to sit down with a drink and a ciggy while I think about this.

Bill Sticker said...

Prohibition looming? Time to set up a still or two.

Worked last time didn't it?

Ian R Thorpe said...

Someone said 'too many people have read Orwell.' I'm beginning to think they are using 1984 as a political effin' science textbook in Oxford, Cambridge and the LSE

Lyn said...

Bet if alcohol goes the same as smoking it will still be legal to drink what they like, where they like in the Houses of Parliament, etc!

Back to the 'We're alright Jack, sod you!'

Revolutions have started in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya recently, with some measure of success. How long I wonder before there are revolutions even closer to home?

Anonymous said...

Nutt should - and probably does - know better than that, considering his statements on cannabis and ecstacy. Yes, high levels of alcohol consumption is harmful. So are high levels of every-fucking-thing.

Wonder whose payroll he's on?

Michael J. McFadden said...

Sorry I missed this 11 months ago!  

The "Secondhand Alcohol" through inhalation comes from a piece I wrote in the RR section of the British Medical Journal five years or more ago.  See:

Jamrozik Secondary Alcohol

And Dick, your statement about the salt in cornflakes has been vindicated just recently!  See:

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/07/10342463-cdc-9-out-of-10-americans-eat-too-much-salt?threadId=3340016&commentId=62296278#c62296278 

(I think LegIron may have pointed to that piece in his blog yesterday.)

Heh, I left a response outlining the dangers of Thirdhand Salt (the salt left on surfaces from the perspiration of the fingertips of people who eat salt) and I got a response of "I *HOPE* you are kidding!"  from someone evidently aware that there are people running around out there who might actually be preaching such nonsense!

- MJM

Michael McFadden said...

The reference to secondary alcohol exposure is at:  

http://web.archive.org/web/20080330061027/http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/330/7495/812#105082 

- MJM