Heart miracle article in Spiked

In today's issue of Spiked, I have returned to the topic of smoking ban/heart attack miracles. 

The myth of the smoking ban ‘miracle’

Restrictions on smoking around the world are claimed to have had a dramatic effect on heart attack rates. It's not true.

Please read the rest...

It is also worth mentioning that the new 'study' which inspired the latest wave of media hysteria (the funniest headline being The Scotsman's 'Smoking ban slashes heart attacks by up to a third across world') was not a new study, but a meta-analysis (a study of studies). It was co-authored by Stanton Glantz, founder of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, director of TobaccoScam, director of SmokeFree Movies etc.

It is remarkable how few key people are responsible for so many theories, studies, facts and figures in the world of anti-smoking research (and how many of them started out as anti-smoking activists). Glantz has built up the heart miracle hypothesis almost single-handedly. His input so far has included:

Writing the meta-analysis which 'proved' that secondhand smoke causes heart disease (1991).

Coming up with the estimate that 50,000 Americans die from secondhand smoke each year (never independently verified and rejected by the EPA) (1991).

Writing 'Even a little secondhand smoke is dangerous', which claimed that brief exposure to smoke causes heart attacks, thereby paving the way for the heart miracle studies (2001).

Writing the Helena heart attack study (with 2 other anti-smoking activists) (2004).

Writing 'Cardiovascular effects of secondhand smoke; nearly as large as smoking' (2005).

Writing the first meta-analysis of heart miracles (2007).

Writing the second meta-analysis of heart miracles (2008).

Writing the third meta-analysis of heart miracles (2009).