Thursday 5 February 2015

Press Releases, Pharma And Pet Politicians

Yesterday we saw the latest response to the tobacco control industry's panic-stricken call to arms against e-cigs. Avert your eyes if you're squeamish, because the Guardian reporting of this utter junk austere science is truly terrifying.
E-cigarettes generated just 1% of the amount of free radicals in tobacco smoke, but this still posed a potential health risk, said the researchers. 
“We were surprised by how high that number was, considering that e-cigarettes do not produce combustion products,” said Dr Sussan. “Granted, it’s 100 times lower than cigarette smoke, but it’s still a high number of free radicals that can potentially damage cells.”
Well, that kinda agrees with the claim that vaping is 95%-99% safer than smoking which sends shudders down tobacco controller spines, doesn't it? But do please stay terrified, won't you? Tobacco control industry salaries depend on it.

Of course, it's the tried-and-tested "science by press release" so beloved of anti-smoking fraudsters everywhere - in fact, they, uniquely, invented the concept. Concoct some study or other with a pre-determined conclusion, completely ignore your own study if it produces results you don't like, and press release whatever you fancy to ubiquitously lazy journalists worldwide. The goal, after all, is a headline - the pursuit of scientific integrity can go fuck itself as long as the public believe the lie.

These charlatans have lied for decades in this way about tobacco and have gotten away with it because people want to believe them, but e-cigs - coupled with tobacco control's lack of innovation and blasé trust in the ignorance of their fellow man - are presenting them with a bit of a problem. You see, their 'experts' understand so very little about vaping devices that their nonsense takes a layperson minutes to debunk, as the Redhead has.
The study used a test protocol that anyone with half a grain of common sense would tell you was utter rubbish – they exposed mice to the same level of vaping as a person, according to their own assumptions. Now given that a person weighs in at about 70Kg, and a mouse at about 40g, that’s a comparable increase of 1750 times. Perhaps these retards watched Phil Busardo’s Legal Vape 4000 video, and assumed that was quite a normal way for people to vape? Or perhaps they knew that by overdosing mice they would get more negative effects. It’s a good job that nicotine isn’t as toxic as idiots like these think, or the whole experiment would have ended there. 
Even then, they managed to screw it up – the estimates for number of puffs per days range from 120 to 350, but that clearly wasn’t enough for these animal abusers. They used 1080.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, they used cigalike cartomisers, which they changed weekly. I don’t know what planet they inhabit, but only a complete fucking idiot would expect to be able to get 180 puffs per day out of a cartomiser for a week. Most of what these idiots exposed the mice too wasn’t vapour as we know it, but burning cartomiser fillings. Good job!
Furthermore, actual scientist Leg Iron spotted a major flaw too.
So some mice died from inhaling (undefined concentration) of (some chemical) that might be present in trace amounts in Electrofag steam. Mice have lungs that are smaller than humans and lab mice are bred to be susceptible to all sorts of things – so that those things can be quickly tested. What happens to a lab mouse will take a lot longer to happen to a real-life mouse and a hell of a lot longer to happen to a human. Perhaps longer than a human lifetime. Funny they never mention that. 
Ah but wait, the mice didn’t die from inhaling Electrofag steam. They died of being deliberately infected with nasty things afterwards. The ones dosed with (undefined concentrations) of Electrofag steam chemicals died faster – but then, a mouse lung has a bit less capacity than a human lung. 
To test the amounts human vapers inhale would involve scaling down and dosing the mice with barely detectable – practically homeopathic – concentrations and my money is on… they didn’t do that.
Of course they didn't, it was all about the headline ... and they got it. They should be in jail instead of promoting junk science, but maybe that's something for the future.

Meanwhile, self-professed 'friend of the vaper' ASH (quote marks because they're anything but) still steadfastly say fuck all about their colleagues' duplicitous demonisation of vaping. The end goal of all this fraudulent activity, though, was seen in the Lords on Tuesday as ASH's puppet Earl Howe - whose devotion to ASH and their pals is gimp-like - was keen to cast as many doubts on e-cigs as possible in the five minutes or so afforded to him.

You can read the whole thing here, but the Earl's highlights are below.
"However, we would not wish to see children taking up vaping, as nicotine is a highly addictive substance" 
"Equally, we need to be cautious as regards the long-term health effects of using e-cigarettes. That is why the Chief Medical Officer is currently not able to recommend their use." 
"The Cochrane review concluded that the quality of the evidence overall is low because it is based on only a small number of studies."
And my favourite ...
"There is a question mark over the electrical safety of some products. We cannot make a general statement about products that are currently on sale. Nevertheless, it is right that the European Union has taken this matter in hand."
Because the European Union doesn't already compel us to observe their 2006 batteries directive along with the other 20-odd regulations and directives which already cover vaping paraphernalia.

Following on from the recent absurd formaldehyde nonsense, it's clear where the tobacco control audit trail goes. Junk science leads to headlines leads to pet politicians proposing unnecessary laws. It's just how it has always been, except with e-cigs there are many more people noticing the fraud.

And if you want to know how we got to this absurd point with e-cigs, I highly recommend you read Snowdon's article today tracing a WHO timeline. It's never been about health.



15 comments:

JLTrader said...

That reminds me of the Wynder experiment from the 50s with painting the backs of mice with the human equivalent of 100.000 cigarettes worth of 'tar' and producing cancer. Therefore, smoking causes cancer in humans, end of story. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ptf56b00

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Yep, straight out of their criminal playbook. They're nothing if not predictable.

JLTrader said...

1953: HEALTH: Dr. Ernst L. Wynder's landmark report finds that painting
cigarette tar on the backs of mice creates tumors. This was the first
successful induction of cancer in a lab animal with a tobacco product,
the first definitive biological link between smoking and cancer.
On the subject of researchers' integrity: I was till not very long ago of the opinion that up to the late 60s, the scientific debates regarding active smoking were honest. Always believed, just by using common sense, that the addiction and SHS issues were pure fabrications. But now when I see the same kind of malarkey repeated all over again, I changed my mind. What kind of serious scientist does the kind of experiments that Wynder did and got famous for ?

Vinny Gracchus said...

The fabrication of evidence, rigged studies, and propaganda have a long history in tobacco control. The entire second hand smoke charade is exemplary of the corruption and collusion that these gangster perpetuate. They are brigands seeking profit in the name of health. Of course their data has problems: cancer continues to rise while smoking rates decrease; consumption increases despite claims otherwise with the introduction of plain packages; smoking rates don't decrease when bans are instituted. Tobacco control is built upon a house of lies. It is time to expose this corruption. Aren't there any investigative reporters anymore?

jude said...

As predicted the screaming of the zealots, the parasites in tobacco control, and the greedites in pharma corps and governments, is becoming deafening. Vaping must really be making a dent in profits and taxes, for them to be scraping below the barrel for anything they can use to try and scare people away from vaping.


But but, "some mice died" after they were subjected to a huge amount of vapour, produced by the least efficient bit of hardware, (cartomiser), which was used beyond any level a vaper would, to the point of creating toxins. Then those poor unfortunate mice were infected with diseases, and died, just so a bit of junk science could be produced.


You don't even need scientific training to be able to see the fraud in this "study".


Wonder what will be next? Vaping makes your penis fall off? Vaping gives you the bubonic plague? And the beat goes on.......

nisakiman said...

Aren't there any investigative reporters anymore?

I have to admit that this is something that has puzzled me. Here we have a mega-con that is overripe for busting.

It wouldn't take a half-decent journalist very much work at all to expose all the lies, exaggerations and junk science that have been used to support this global attack on smokers and smoking, and yet we have seen nary a peep from the serried ranks of those fearless investigative journos.

Perhaps it's simply that no newspaper would dare to publish the truth, knowing that they would bring the fury of all those massively funded anti-smoking organisations down on their heads.

Whatever happened to the 'Publish And Be Damned' attitude that independent editors used to have?

Justin said...

"those poor unfortunate mice" were probably as poor and unfortunate as Schroedinger's cat. I mean - if you already have a conclusion, can program modelling software, why bother will all the unpleasantness of actual, physical rodents?

jude said...

Perhaps it sounds more scary saying "2/10 mice DIED because of e-cig vapour !!!!!!!


"We tested the effect of vapour on the immune system, and found that the vapour products are 99% less toxic than smoking tobacco, and if you push a "cigalike" to breaking point, and then breath in the crap produced, you will likely have less ability to fight off infections, we found this out using computer modeling" , still awake?? :)

truckerlyn said...

Perhaps all reporters today are non/anti smokers! Then again, I am sure the breed today is a lot less conscientious than those of a some decades ago; and perhaps too, it is that our 'free' press is being hampered by threats from certain quarters, or being paid by corrupt morons such as those in ASH and even the big pharma industry, or both!


Whichever, it makes them extremely cowardly, impotent and not worth the name of 'reporters'!

Entropy said...

One thing they didnt count on is the abundant accessibility of the internet. No longer are the public getting the majority of their information from "official" sources, they can jump online whilst riding the No.6 bus home from the office and find many more alternative viewpoints. This is working as a tool for vaping advocacy, but greater effort is required. No junk article should be allowed to be published without advocates jumping on the comments and correcting it. Link to blogs, link to the science itself - get the word out.

This is a tool that wasnt available to smokers during the tobacco wars. It is for vaping. Lets use it.

Caprizchka said...

Being a smoker is kind of like being a man today. You're expected to feel guilty for existing. If you don't feel guilty, then you're an oppressor.

Expecting a male, smoking journalist to actually come forward and proclaim that the Emperor Has No Clothes and then to keep his job is like expecting the University of Virginia to apologize to the fraternities.

Just imagine the hate mail alone.

nisakiman said...

The tobacco wars are ongoing, and as has been noted on a number of occasions by several people who are regular commenters, if your comment draws attention to the anomalies and contradictions of the claims in the article, with links to the actual facts pertaining to those claims, there is a very good chance your comment will be deleted, and only the comments from the rabid antis allowed to stand.

It's happened to me more times than I care to count.

Once the war on vaping hots up, and the antis start putting pressure on the MSM, expect to experience the same frustrations of not being allowed to tell people reading the article and comments the actual realities. It can be quite depressing.

nisakiman said...

Yes, sadly that is the truth of it. Anyone who dares to put his head above the parapet publicly can expect to be shot down in flames. It's only here in the blogosphere that we are immune to their fury and vindictive retaliation since they have no power over us.

Gray Cooper said...

After this morning's headlines I've blacklisted Labour,Tory & Lib Dems because of their asinine smoking ban & tobacco control.They really should be thrown out of politcs.

Gray Cooper said...

After this morning's headlines I've blacklisted Labour,Tory & Lib Dems because of their asinine smoking ban & tobacco control.They really should be thrown out of politcs.