No blogging from me for a week or so, so I will leave you with some extra notes from Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking.
Download the PDF: Extra Velvet
Quite a bit got cut out of the book before it was published, generally because it didn't fit the narrative. Some of it you may find interesting, some of it you won't. It is, after all, a selection of left-overs, but I thought it was worth putting it out there for the sake of completeness. If you haven't read Velvet Glove, most of it won't even make sense. It's no substitute for reading the book but at least it's free.
Includes:
- the inherent snobbery of the food wars
- the strange battle over salt
- the misguided attack on safer tobacco products
- the story of Rob Cunningham, Canada's John Banzhaf
- more on Michael Siegel's secondhand smoke study
- Australia's version of the infamous EPA study
- some advice on how to kill a cat
- how ASH differs from anti-smoking groups of the past
- why cigarette taxes hurt the poor
- what happened to Lawton Chiles
- how America came to believe there were 50,000 deaths a year from passive smoking
... and numerous other facts, quotes, tales and thoughts from this long and tangled story.
This isn't an update. All this was written before March 2009. See it more as a collection of extended footnotes—references to where each bit would have gone are included.
Take care, don't forget TICAP and I'll be back online next week...
For everyone in London who opposes the smoking ban :
ReplyDeletehttp://londonsmokersvenues.ning.com/
The next logical step: That foolish place, NY, has had a restaurant salt ban bill introduced into its legislature:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/new_york_state/chefs-call-proposed-new-york-salt-ban-absurd-20100310-akd
It never ends.
Enjoyed the "Extra Velvet" quite a bit Chris. Can't wait to read the book.
ReplyDeleteOn page 420 of "Extra Velvet": "nonsmokers living and working with nonsmokers are exposed to the equivalent of six cigarettes per year". I think you meant "smokers" in the second instance, but perhaps not.
WS.