Thursday 27 June 2013

A New Low For Tobacco Control

As if you ever needed yet another example of astounding chutzpah from the global tobacco control industry, read this and be astounded.
The smoking rate among adults in the United States has dropped again, an encouraging trend that experts on smoking cessation attribute to public policies like smoke-free air laws and cigarette taxes, as well as media campaigns and less exposure to smoking in movies. 
Eighteen percent of American adults were cigarette smokers in 2012, according to a report released last week by the National Center for Health Statistics, down from 18.9 percent the previous year. From 2009 to 2012, the rate dropped to 18 percent from 20.6 percent
That's right. It's nothing whatsoever to do with the e-cig revolution which has been accelerating during the same period, because Big Control is desperately trying to pretend that this isn't actually happening.


Billions of cigarettes not smoked is nothing to do with that 2.6 per cent decline. No, siree. Just like taxation doesn't encourage consumers to shop elsewhere.

So what does the tobacco control industry source for this bullshit have to say?
“The fact that we’re below this theoretical sound barrier of 20 percent is important,” says Stanton A. Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of the university’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. “This data shows that the whole premise that there is this hard-core group, where no matter what you do you can’t get them to quit, is just not true.”
You're absolutely correct, Mad Stan, but we know very well what tends to work for the "hard-core group", and here it is.
First-Ever Clinical Trial of Electronic Cigarettes Finds 13% One-Year Quit Rate Among Smokers with No Interest in Quitting
We now have clinical trial evidence that these devices can be useful in smoking cessation, even among a population of smokers which had no interest in quitting. Despite this worst-case scenario, a 13% cessation rate was achieved after one year with the group that received 7.2 mg nicotine cartridges for 12 weeks, and the overall cessation rate was 7.8%.
Or it could just be a result of seeing fewer scenes of smoking in movies, of course. {wibble}
Opponents of electronic cigarettes can no longer argue that claims of the effectiveness of this product for smoking cessation are based solely on anecdotal or survey evidence.
Oh yes they can because, as the NYT article - entitled "Why Smoking Rates Are at New Lows" - proves quite conclusively, they will simply ignore the huge global e-cig phenomenon. There is no mention of it anywhere.

Possibly because the quite insane Glantz hates them so much that his view of them is a stunning example of sticking one's fingers in one's ears and shouting very loudly. He wants to see them banned because he claims you can die from passive vaping. He also believes that all the billions of cigarettes that are now not smoked are just a figment of your imagination.

I suppose we knew this had to come sometime. The massive uptake of e-cig use - along with the heavy evidence of smokers quitting in droves as a result - were always likely to make a dent in smoker prevalence figures, it was a curiosity to see how an industry which has lived the high life on pharma patronage was going to react to e-cigs doing the job that they have demonstrably failed to do in recent years.

Well now we know. They'll just claim the success as their own. Simples.

Has there ever been a more corrupt movement than the one devoted to full prohibition of tobacco or anything that looks like it? Sinking so low as to applaud themselves for the achievements of a phenomenon they are desperately trying to ban is scandalous, cowardly and shameful.

Oh yeah, and - I nearly forgot to remind you - it's never been about health.


12 comments:

MarkWadsworth said...

Me, I'm not just worried about second hand vaping but third hand vaping.

What if some poor kid sees a film in which somebody vapes? That's fourth hand vaping and another eight quadrillion eariy and avoidable deaths etc.

Castello said...

Nice writeup! Glantz is an ass of the highest degree!

What the.... said...

“…..says Stanton A. Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University
of California, San Francisco”

Glantz is no “professor of medicine”. He is a mechanical engineer that was
given a professorship of medicine by UCSF to lend “medical weight” to his
bigoted antismoking ranting and raving. He’s a fraud promoting the logical
fallacy of “appeal to authority” along with many of his buddies in Public
Health and Tobacco Control.

According to his online biography, Glantz was awarded a Ph.D. in 1973 from Stanford University in Applied Mechanics and Engineering Economic Systems. From this mechanical background, Glantz undertook a postdoctoral year at Stanford University in Cardiology (1975),
and another postdoctoral year at the University of California (San
Francisco) in cardiovascular research (1977). It appears that the connection to cardiology is in “applied mechanical” terms; he has no formal training in medicine. In 1977, Glantz was given the academic posting of assistant professor in Cardiology at UCSF; this was upgraded to a full professorship in 1987. Glantz is currently a Professor of Medicine and
Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education at the University of California (San Francisco). It appears that the “medical” status
serves essentially to “legitimize” the antitobacco status and exploit Glantz’s
high profile in this area.
http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com/stanton_glantz_doctor_of_what.html
http://www.nycclash.com/CaseAgainstBans/Appendix.html
http://www.forcesitaly.org/italy/evidenza/truff_anti/glantz/corrisponden...
http://opponentsofohiobans.com/SGlantz.aspx

Astounding is that this extremist, neurotic buffoon has been allowed to present himself for the last few decades as a professor of medicine or professor of cardiology. There doesn’t appear to be even one instance where a journalist has asked fundamental questions of Glands – have you had any clinical training in medicine, where did you complete your internship, with which medical board are you certified to practice medicine? The fraud should have been exposed years ago along with the Public Health system in Califraudia that bestowed him with the “professorship”.

harleyrider1989 said...

World Atlas: More People Smoking Cigarettes than Ever


There are more people smoking now than ever before, despite health warnings and the rising price of cigarettes. In 1980, 4,453 billion cigarettes went up in smoke, which increased to 6,319 billion in 2010. By 2020, you can expect to find nearly seven billion cigarette ends littering the world.

Top of the charts in terms of nicotine addiction are Asia and Australia, which is where 57 percent of cigarettes are smoked today.

These alarming statistics are among many of the intriguing facts laid bare in the ninth edition of Dan Smith's The State of the World Atlas.

Elsewhere, the book reports that 19 percent of Americans say they could not feed their families in 2011, despite living in one of the world's richest countries. Meanwhile, 20 percent of India's population remains undernourished, despite its Gross National Income rising by 450 percent since 1990.

An even more shocking revelation is that 2.5 billion people live on less than £1.25 a day, which represents one in three of the global population.


http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/421066/20130106/population-statistics-state-world-atlas-dan-smith.htm

harleyrider1989 said...

They have no clue in the world how many actually smoke anymore at all. But one thing is for sure they have to show success and that means more manipulation of data to do it!

Junican said...

But, DP, have you not noticed that the ecig is now a 'smoking cessation device' which was invented by Big Pharm? Therefore, if it works, then it is a great triumph for Tobacco Control! Grantz does not have to state it. It is understood. He has ALWAYS been in favour of Big Pharm owned ecigs, Did you not know?
Oh wait .... He hasn't said that yet has he? Maybe tomorrow.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

That's the future. When e-cigs are proven to be incredibly safe and the tobacco control industry have no lies left to tell about them, they will simply pretend that they were in favour of e-cigs all along. We are at war with Eastasia, we have always been at war with Eastasia. ;)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Spoken as if you were nutty Stan himself. ;)

JonathanBagley said...

See Stan's latest blog posting Dick. He disputes the findings of the Italian study. He's suddenly become a fan of control groups, Ha, Ha - the Anti smoking Industry has ignored them for years. Stan really is one of the world's greatest AHs.
At least, if he's right, ecigs can't be classified as medicines, as they don't work.

JonathanBagley said...

Below the NYT article is a stream of testimonials for ecigs.

The Meissen Bison said...

Glans - when has anyone been more appropriately named?

Michael J. McFadden said...

"“The fact that we’re below this theoretical sound barrier of 20 percent is important,”


A "theoretical sound barrier" ? Applied to a statistical guess? Sometimes I wonder, given his geographic location, if Stan Glantz actually DOES smoke... but not tobacco.


- MJM