tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post8034384316040361243..comments2023-10-17T15:56:22.827+01:00Comments on Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: Not bad science, but awful logicChristopher Snowdonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15963753745009712865noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-64435158623546385332011-03-14T02:56:28.512+00:002011-03-14T02:56:28.512+00:00A little OT..., but this just in:
http://www.bbc....A little OT..., but this just in:<br /><br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12728629<br /><br />14 March 2011 Last updated at 02:35<br /><br />"Six leading health groups have dealt the government a blow by refusing to sign up to its new "responsibility deal" on alcohol in England.<br /><br />The deal covers voluntary agreements with the drinks industry on issues such as promotions and labelling, aimed at tackling alcohol abuse.<br /><br />But the organisations, including Alcohol Concern, accused ministers of not being tough enough on the industry."<br /><br />And the groups concerned?<br /><br />"The full list of organisations which are refusing to sign up is: Alcohol Concern, the British Association for the Study of the Liver, the British Liver Trust, the British Medical Association, the Institute of Alcohol Studies and the Royal College of Physicians."<br /><br />We live in the age of Rule By Experts. Only those who are qualified to tell us how to live need apply... and they wonder why the low turn-out come election time?ftumchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-24620798790490878982011-03-13T22:39:32.577+00:002011-03-13T22:39:32.577+00:00The first 'low tar' cigarette I am aware o...The first 'low tar' cigarette I am aware of (although it was not 'low tar' but mild) was Benson and Hedges Silk Cut in the 1960s. This was a cigarette aimed at women, and was basically a B&H with teeny weeny holes in the filter.<br /><br />It is ironic that in the 1970s, cigarette packets contained a little advice slip from HM Government, which included, "Take fewer puffs", "Remove from mouthb between puffs", "Leaver a longer stub", and , wait for it, "TRY CHANGING TO A LOWER TAR BRAND".<br /><br />To reduce the tar yield in, to coin a phrase, a 'normal' cigarette, (one without holes in the filter), manufacturers have had to replace tobacco with other materials. I believe this includes tree bark. As a smoker of both roll ups and factory made cigarettes, I am certainly aware that the factory made cigarettes can make me more chesty - too much wood smoke?<br /><br />I did unknowingly buy 200 counterfiet B&H once. I could not smoke them all, I don't know what was in them, but I could feel it.timbonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06985165416240833253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-82960431051100064392011-03-13T10:24:00.753+00:002011-03-13T10:24:00.753+00:00My understanding (somewhere in my bookmarks, but F...My understanding (somewhere in my bookmarks, but Firefox seems so sluggish in recent versions, with more than a dozen or two tabs open, that trying to find it stalls everything!) is that it was a health body (Canadian?) that first pushed for lower tar cigarettes, on 'evidence', and the tobacco industries did their best to comply...<br /><br />As for 'addictiveness', have a look in Google Books for "A Critique of Nicotine Addiction" - using different search terms will get you different views; it's an expensive book; but the authors as well as going against the "established" view on addiction, suggest that "compensation" is also misunderstood; people regulate high nicotine tobacco intake downward.<br /><br />Then there's the recent insanity of "U.S. Presses Tobacco Firms to Admit to Falsehoods About Light Cigarettes and Nicotine Addiction"<br /><br />IMHO they were quite right to assert that it's not addictive, and (if they were indeed pressured to come up with "low tar" cigarettes, following best advice at the time from health authorities), hardly deceitful about "light" & "mild" either!<br /><br />- RossAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-44889350609939632342011-03-13T03:27:42.157+00:002011-03-13T03:27:42.157+00:00more unintended consequence from anti tobacco
htt...more unintended consequence from anti tobacco<br /><br />http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/10/BAFU1I8I51.DTL&tsp=1<br /><br />A San Francisco jury has awarded $1.36 million to a terminally ill man who smoked filter-tipped Kent cigarettes in the 1950s that contained asbestos.<br /><br />Medical groups' concerns about tobacco in the early 1950s prompted companies to start selling filtered cigarettes. Kent's ads promoted the Micronite filters as "the greatest health protection in cigarette history" and said they removed seven times as much tar and nicotine as other leading filters. The company removed asbestos from the filters in 1957.Ann W.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-22471404178138388572011-03-13T01:42:22.991+00:002011-03-13T01:42:22.991+00:00Goldacre's 'Bad Science' site is a par...Goldacre's 'Bad Science' site is a particularly poorly named one. It should be titled 'Science which disagrees with me' instead.Dick Puddlecotehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01481866882188932892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-19132736551731250802011-03-13T00:41:13.469+00:002011-03-13T00:41:13.469+00:00(by '1930s' of after i mean 1930s and the ...(by '1930s' of after i mean 1930s and the period following, not 'was it the 1930s, or just another decade?')Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10014403700729444743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-78638598499752578792011-03-13T00:40:23.431+00:002011-03-13T00:40:23.431+00:00Chris,
True about the tar derby, although i was r...Chris,<br /><br />True about the tar derby, although i was referring specifically to our 10mg limit. Do you know if they went that low in the 1930s or after?<br /><br />It's a bloggling premise that ALL cigarettes are as bad as each other - i fail to see how someone who believes inhaling smoke can cause lung cancer can refute that something to <i>reduce</i> the amount of smoke/particles makes no difference. I wasn't aware people were advocating banning filters. If anything, i'd say the filters could do with more work to be 'safer'. I'm not sure how much of a risk there is from inhaling the particles that make up the filter, but it certainly does happen, and the regular Swan filters make me cough. Here in the States the filters have an outer 'casing' that has completely removed my cough. So do the charcoal filters back in the UK.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10014403700729444743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-38522480041154158682011-03-13T00:31:32.154+00:002011-03-13T00:31:32.154+00:00Rich,
Low tars have been around since the 'ta...Rich,<br /><br />Low tars have been around since the 'tar derby' of the 1930s. Lower yields and filters are the only things that have made smoking somewhat less hazardous in 100 years of trying (the charcoal filter seems to have been particularly effective but it never really caught on), but the scale of improvement is open to question (all the usual caveats about low-risk epidemiology apply). It's certainly fair to say that an unfiltered Gauloise is worse for you than a Silk Cut ultra. As Harris mentions in his study, ultra-lows have not been around for long enough to see what, if any, benefit smokers who used them exclusively experience.<br /><br />The focus has been on lung cancer, naturally, and there has been a shift from large cell to adenocarcinoma, because - as Goldacre rightly says - people do tend to inhale more deeply. The National Cancer Institute's monograph about this recognised that the epidemiology was fairly consistent in showing reduced risk but wasn't sure that it was borne out by national lung cancer rates. Although there is a reduction in risk for lung cancer of around 25% (taking all studies together), the effect on other diseases is less clear and it's definitely an exaggeration to say that the safer cigarette has arrived in any sense. That said, the idea that all cigarettes are equally bad (including counterfeit ones, as some fanatics claim) is a dangerous delusion. Some time soon I'll be blogging about the people who propose banning filters on this basis.Christopher Snowdonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15963753745009712865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-6975654904065185552011-03-13T00:20:24.378+00:002011-03-13T00:20:24.378+00:00"Gesture Politics"
Simply defined as 2 f..."Gesture Politics"<br />Simply defined as 2 fingers to the millions that disagree.Xopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01387364739989208360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-44892984826209329372011-03-12T23:59:36.280+00:002011-03-12T23:59:36.280+00:00Nicely done Chris. This reminds me of a comment le...Nicely done Chris. This reminds me of a comment left in the CATCH debate about how cigarettes have changed since the 60s, with them being far lower in tar content and also how smoking patterns have changed e.g. the 100 a day smoker largely no longer existing. Perhaps the 'safer cigarette' that has been mentioned for all this time is already here in the shape of 'regular' cigarettes. <br />It makes me curious though, that these lower tar initiatives have been here since the 1990s and the rhetoric about cigarettes hasn't, despite the fact that we simply won't know if and how the reduction to 10mg as 'full strength' has made a difference for a few more decades.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10014403700729444743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-43050427519787281402011-03-12T21:31:32.070+00:002011-03-12T21:31:32.070+00:00There is a potential lowest risk of all cigarette ...There is a potential lowest risk of all cigarette been invented called the e-cig that is nothing but flavoured steam, yet everyone has run away from considering pushing for that alternative in the long run for fear their benefactors from pharmaceuticals and tobacco won't continue benefacting them. The political arguments are mostly based on concocted lies or arguments where none existed to push some agenda over another. Yet long run real solutions to real problems get ignored in the process. One has to wonder in the longer term stretch of time then looking back what the historical comment will be about the policy makers these days in the area of tobacco and other evil long-used products of nature, including alcohol, food, sugar, salt and beverages.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com