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| Life time smoking of ready made cigarettes online can be readily quantified as "pack years" smoked, but methods for measuring loose tobacco use are less well established. In this study the frequency of loose tobacco use by 247 hospital in-patients was determined; 64% were current or ex-smokers, 41.3% of whom (25.9% of participants) had smoked loose tobacco. A formula was developed for converting loose tobacco use to pack years smoked, based on the weight of tobacco in ready made cigarettes; 12.5 g or half an ounce of loose tobacco was approximately equivalent to one packet of 20 cheap cigarettes. Using a questionnaire it was found that hospital physicians of all grades were able to convert smoking histories of ready made cigarettes, but not loose tobacco, into number of "pack years" smoked. | ||
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| Anti-smoking stance: a mere political correctness
S. I. Zaman PhD Smoking has become an outlawed culture lately. Gone are the days when a cigarette held between the lips was considered debonair and a smart thing. Let’s not pretend that the anti-smoking pressure group or the government are losing sleep over the health issue of smokers – far from it. They couldn’t care less about smokers health risk any more than they care about who’s going to win the lottery next week. No it’s not about health nor about imminent lung cancer nor about passive smoking. It’s about political one-upmanship – it’s a campaign against the cigarette companies who are one of the biggest multinational corporations. It’s the same old vile politics being staged ever since politics as an institution left its benign root and began play dirty. Arms industries in UK and in USA are the most lucrative right now and the least honest in terms of its underhand dealings – the leaders of these corporate giants have sway over who walks in the corridors of power – deaths of millions of people (mostly in the third world) are directly linked to arms supplied by these corporations and funded by the ruling power at the time. Now these millions of deaths are surely not the result of “passive smoking” or indeed “smoking”. Every minute a child is killed in a remote dictatorial third world (who your government backs tacitly) by weapons supplied by companies blessed by your government. The Labour or Tory (in UK), Republican or Democrats (in USA) whoever happens to be in power have never failed to supply deadly arms to rogue regimes world wide – of course, these are never reported in the main stream media – the official line has always been to portray a benign and humanitarian façade of the ruling power. No government thus far will ever admit that they have knowingly supplied arms to rogue regimes to further the cause of Arms industries. Where are those anti-smoking pressure groups? We never see a nationwide protest saying “enough is enough”. Every year during the two weeks of festive season (Christmas and New Year), like seasonal phenomena, there are more deaths by drunken driving than any other time of the year. The pubs are buzzing with drinkers on Friday and Saturday evenings, like flies on a carcass – the street corners and alleyways reeks of beer and urines (of course one needs to relieve wherever one finds a wall, like your primeval ancestors did) – the stink can some times turn your stomach – every step of the way you bump into a drunkard whose breath reeks of stale beer and whose faculty is “as good as it gets”. Yet you can not make a protest – yet we never hear any pressure group rising up to say “enough is enough”. Have we ever heard of “No alcohol day”? The cyber-age has given us internet and other paraphernalia that comes with it. The phenomenal surge in available information over the web is mind-boggling. Nevertheless, with every luxury comes a price. The porn industries have found its perfect outlet – it’s no longer that “adult shop tucked away next to that quaint little shop on the high street” (in UK or USA) – rather, it’s on your very own private computer tucked away in your cushy bedroom corner, where a juvenile can feast on whatever filth these companies are throwing at you. The Paedophiles are making careers out of downloading child pornography and their crimes are only now coming to light profusely. Nevertheless, we haven’t heard any pressure group calling for banning or blocking these sites nor have we seen any nationwide crusade (in any country) against these filths. These days it has become fashionable to align oneself on the “politically” correct side, more for one’s need to be socially acceptable and less for any political conviction. And inevitably, anti-smoking stand has become merely a politically correct stand. As for the politically orchestrated myth that passive smoking kills, there is no plausible scientific foundation to this myth. An indeed it’s a myth of colossal proportion. A myth packaged in unfounded and baseless scientific facts, just so that politicians can impose taxations and the pressure group can have their way. And why is it a myth? Here’s an example from Holland: in 2003 the Dutch Health Board put forward a report which asserts that second hand smoke causes at least thousands of deaths each year from heart problem, lung cancer and a small amount of from sudden infant death syndrome. I just wonder why they have forgotten to include rest of the known ailments that afflict mankind. Nevertheless, in 30 or so studies (mostly in research in lung cancer) 81% of the 177 results found no statistically significant correlation between second hand smoking and adverse health effects (source: online library of drug policy, BMJ, WHO). Moreover, a major study done by WHO in 1998 could find no correlation between second hand smoking and lung cancer. Incidentally, WHO is fanatically against smoking. However, WHO tried to deep-six the report (the Economist March 12, 1998) for obvious reasons. If passive smoking is indeed a killer, then how about CO2 and CO emission from fumes created by millions of cars, and how about the substantial (seldom miniscule) dosage of chemicals in the fumes emitted by industry – they stay in the air that we breath – where are those pressure groups ? Have we heard any nationwide campaign to stop these pollutions? Don’t these kill us? So why single out smoking? | |||
| Posted by Anonymous | |||
| Entry 11 of 12 |
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