YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE

As much as they would like everyone to believe that ‘’the debate is over’’ and the only entity fighting against tobacco control activity is the tobacco industry itself, many members of the public, a swarm, as blogger Frank Davis described them in one of his recent blogposts, smokers and nons alike are regularly exposing the shenanigans and the shoddy science behind anti-smoking and demand answers from the professional anti-smokers who very seldom make themselves available to the public. If the journalists won’t challenge even their more absurd studies and contentions, somebody has to do it. Ordinary citizens have taken the task into their own hands.

One of the few exceptions to their rule of deafening silence was a facebook group they created to plead their case and gain sympathy on a FOI request from Philip Morris pertaining to the underlying data Stirling University anti-tobacco researchers have collected for a study on young people and smoking. A study that could lead to policy for mandatory plain packaging in the UK. The story has even reached the Canadian media. You can hear it here: Freedom of Information on Kids and Smoking


Because the opportunities to get to question these tobacco control activists and researchers are rare, a few ordinary citizens joined the facebook group that members of the Globalink community created, casted their vote on the poll available to all that asked whether or not one agreed with the university’s stand of refusing to produce the data to Philip Morris regardless of the FOI Act regulations, and engaged in a civil discussion with anti-smoker activists willing to participate in the debate such as Simon Chapman well known Australian tobacco control activist and Rory Morrison from ASH Scotland, both members of Globalink. Not only  were they asked pointy questions, these ordinary citizens (including the writer of this blogpost) clearly and firmly expressed to them that they no longer had trust in the integrity of anti-smoker activists and studies and gave numerous examples of shoddy anti-tobacco science to prove their point.


Not only were the questions not answered, and no attempts to defend the shoddy/fraudulent science behind already published studies were offered, when the heat became too unbearable for this tobacco control community to take, they made the facebook group vanish with no trace of any of the discussions to be found anywhere.


Why? The answer is more than obvious. They had no answers or defense in the face of such public humiliation from ordinary citizens. They ran scared and hid behind private groups such as a newly created Globalink facebook goup that invites tobacco control activists to join upon invitation and/or approval.


‘’ Today, Simon Chapman and I are pleased to announce the launch of a new Facebook closed discussion group, information and strategy exchange site, the Global Tobacco Control Network.
By a “closed” Facebook group, we mean that all members need to be approved and all material posted to the group will not be visible to non‐members nor searchable by outsiders. ‘’


Such lack of transparency and willingness to debate when they are against informed opponents instead of complacent lazy journalists and politicians, is plenty proof that Philip Morris has legitimate reasons to doubt the integrity of the Stirling University researchers’ data, and therefore their FOI request should be respected and obeyed without any further delays. Moreover, it should be made mandatory that the underlying data of any and every publicly funded study that affects public policy, be open and available to everyone to examine. It has become more than obvious that the public cannot rely on neither politicians nor overworked and/or lazy journalists to examine the integrity of the anti-tobacco science before policy that affects numerous societies is enacted.


Let the tobacco control activists be warned: They can continue to try to hide behind anonymous posters planted in different newspaper and other forums, we have learnt to recognize their style and they will be constantly tracked down and asked the same types of questions and explanations as they were asked during this brief encounter between identified anti-tobacco and pro-truth activists. And this until they are forced to resign or become accountable, honest and human.


Some background to our story :


Globalink is a network for international tobacco control activists making use of the internet to communicate ideas and strategies against the use of tobacco. It is part of the Global Control Movement lead by the American Cancer Society and the UICC. Although Globalink don't declare in their webiste that Big Pharma is funding them, here's what we can read in bold on page 34 of the Strategy Planning for Tobacco Control Movement Building at http://www.paho.org/English/AD/SDE/RA/Guide2_MovementBuilding.pdf


Links to Drug Companies That Have Funded Tobacco Control Action


GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)


Pharmacia Corporation (now owned by Pfizer)


In a June/11 blog posting, Dr. Michael Siegel exposed how the groupthink mentality runs rampant in the globalink network. A few excerpts from his blogpost :


‘’It (Globalink) is a mechanism for preventing critical discussion of research, science, and policy issues in tobacco control. It serves to stifle thoughtful discussion of ideas, suppresses dissenting opinions, and plays out as a forum for malicious individual attacks against researchers, advocates, or citizens who dare to go against the mainstream opinions within the tobacco control movement.’’


Another former Globalink member – Dr. Kamal Chaouachi – had this to say:


‘’I was banished (from Globalink) several times and eventually expelled once and for all. Over the years, I have also been amazed by the extent of endorsed intolerance. For instance, there have been, believe it or not, “debates” on whether it is ethical or not to give a last cigarette to a person confined to bed and doomed to death… Then, one discovers the pharmaceutical industry connections (Pfizer in particular)(WCTOH, 2009 ; Mesbah 2009) and how Globalink’s policy has been drawn with “a velvet glove” pulled on an iron fist named Simon Chapman, ex Editor in Chief of the world famous antismoking Tobacco Control Journal’’.

THE TORONTO MIRACLE

The latest miracle from a series of miracles that occurred throughout the world in the last few years, comes to us from very close to home this time. Indeed, the epidemiologists of the latest anti-tobacco junk study found that in Toronto "Crude rates of admission to hospital because of cardiovascular conditions decreased by 39% (95% CI 38%–40%) and admissions because of respiratory conditions decreased by 33% (95% CI 32%–34%) during the ban period affecting restaurant settings. ‘’

These allegations clearly don’t fly with common sense and at least two scientists have already spoke out against the findings .

Dr. Samy Suissa, director of clinical epidemiology at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, opined the findings in these terms: ‘’(…)to say that by having a smoking ban you've wiped out 40 per cent of the cardiovascular events, hospitalized cardiovascular events, is I think quite optimistic. (…) it is hard to believe banning smoking in restaurants led to a 17 per cent decline in heart attack rates across the entire population, regardless of whether they smoked or frequented restaurants. The best medications we have on the market are associated with a 10, 12, eight per cent decreases. But not 17 per cent. And these are directly in patients who are taking these medications carefully. (…)"The numbers don't add up. Scientifically they don't add up."

But the most extensive analysis on this study was again done by none other than Dr. Michael Siegel who has debunked every single one of these ‘’miracle’’ studies as they popped up.

Excerpts from Dr. Siegel’s thorough analysis that you can read on his blog entry: Study Attributes Fall in Cardiovascular Admissions in Toronto to Smoking Ban and Decrease in Secondhand Smoke Exposure, But Methods are Faulty

‘’ The rest of the story is that we have yet another study purporting to show a dramatic and immediate effect of smoking bans on acute cardiovascular event admissions which turns out to be severely flawed. In this case, the data presented in the paper (or at least in the appendix) not only fail to support the study conclusion, but they actually refute that conclusion. They also refute the findings themselves as presented in the paper.

(…) I believe the actual data is quite clear in showing that this study failed to accurately present the findings and therefore resulted in an unsupported and unjustified conclusion.’’

But as we have grown accustomed to expect from agenda driven tobacco control lobbyists, as long as the results justify anti-smoking policy and their own future funding, it doesn’t matter how we skew the findings to come to these results. Roberta Ferrence executive director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit at the University of Toronto and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, hazards even as far as comparing it to another piece of junk science - the Bowling Green, Ohio ‘’miracle’’ - which has also been expertly debunked by Dr. Siegel. Clearly, grasping at straws takes its full meaning from these desperate anti-tobacco attempts to defend the indefensible.

Smoke-free restaurants may be keeping Torontonians out of hospital: Study

HOW LONG WILL THIS BILLION DOLLAR CHARADE CONTINUE? - John R. Polito

With Mr. John Polito’s, - a well known advocate of cold turkey tobacco cessation - explicit permission, we are posting here his comment on how far the pharmaceutical industry has corrupted the tobacco issue, more particularly the cessation methods. His passionate comment is rich with links you can follow that illustrate precisely his point. Mr. Polito has advised us that anything he publishes on the web is public domain, so please feel free to spread it far and wide. Politicians must be made to feel that we have had enough of allowing Big Pharma to operate without any accountability for the damage they are causing individuals and society through their unethical, immoral and fraudulent marketing tactics for economic gain.

As posted in Dr. Siegel’s blog at: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/mbsiegel/8151429188389081481/

Dr. Siegel, thanks for helping expose the greatest research sham in pharmaceutical industry history. The ALF, ALA, ACS, RWJF, CDC, AHRQ, DHHS, GSK & Pfizer all are aware that they have been active participants in scamming smokers into believing that quitting without pharmacology is nearly impossible, when in fact that's how 9 out of 10 long-term ex-smokers succeed. It's a false and deceptive campaign done solely for economic gain.

By the way, Professor Simon Chapman, Australia's leading tobacco control voice, just released an attack upon Pfizer (entitled: "Pfizer's campaign to drug as many smokers as possible") that sounds an awful lot like something Dr. Siegel might say: http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09...rs-as-possible/

The bottom line is that all of these organizations are by now fully aware that it's impossible to blind smokers with significant quitting histories as to the onset of full-blown withdrawal. As a study by the nicotine patch co-inventor (Jed Rose of Duke) just found, four times as many placebo nicotine patch users were able to correctly identify their group assignment as were wrong about it. More than 200 placebo controlled cessation trials have measured levels of frustration not efficacy. What's sad is how all of the above organizations insist on ignoring all real-world findings showing that real cold turkey quitters have yet to be beaten by any form of pharmacology and it's consumer fraud of the worst sort to suggest otherwise. Many of these quitters are fighting to save their lives and what do we do, we lie to them!!!!!!! God, help us!!!!!

Placebo use in drug addiction studies is a license to steal. Participants in these studies were not expecting to go cold turkey and endure full-blown withdrawal. Instead, they joined in hopes of obtaining weeks or months of a free chemical ("medicine") that would stimulate their dopamine pathways, thus diminishing their withdrawal syndrome. If assigned to placebo it didn't happen. Often 80-90% of the placebo group relapsed within the first few days. It isn't that they necessarily relapsed because they couldn't quit but because this particular effort failed to live up to expectations. The results aren't science. They're junk.

How much longer will this billion dollar charade continue? President Obama promised that science would be driven by facts not profits. When, Mr. President?

Thanks for focusing on the ALF's pharmacology sales site, www.BecomeAnEx.org, Dr. Siegel. Dr. Richard Hurt's name, face and advice are all over the BecomeAnEx site. But as disclosed in this 2009 paper, he also serves on Pfizer's Advisory Board - http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/...ct/ caac.20031v1

In this video clip Dr. Hurt crams pharmacology down the viewers throats by falsely asserting that pharmacology doubles "your" chances. Dr. Hurt knows that that is a real-world effectiveness representation he's making there, not a clinical trial placebo efficacy claim -

http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...arn_addiction/ 2

Here's a second clip claiming medicine can double "your" chance of success (at tail end) - again, it's a clearly false effectiveness claim -
http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...earn_overview/ 3

Here Dr. Hurt explains how to pick the right pharmacology -
http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...arn_addiction/ 3

In this ALF video Dr. Hurt teaches how to chew nicotine gum -
http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...arn_addiction/ 4

Here the ALF's drug store teaches about the nicotine lozenge - http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...arn_addiction/ 5

This is Dr. Hurt selling the nicotine patch - http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...arn_addiction/ 6

This is his nicotine inhaler clip -
http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...arn_addiction/ 7

This is his nicotine spray clip -
http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...arn_addiction/ 8

This is his Zyban and Chantix clip. Amazingly he does not advise viewers of any adverse event or death concerns associated with using Chantix. As a member of Pfizer's Advisory Board, how does he get away with it?

http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...arn_addiction/ 9

In this clip he again encourages quitters to talk with their physician about medications. If using an OTC product, why would they also need to make an appointment to see their doctor? http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...rn_addiction/ 10

This clip is about getting medication and setting a quit date. The problem with the ALF's advice is that we now have two studies asserting that not setting a quit date, that quitting spontaneously, doubles your chances. These are the study links:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubm...pubmed/ 16443610

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubm...pubmed/ 19509277

So which is it ALF? Get visitors to buy medicine and pick a quit date or advise them to jump in the quitting pool without meds? This advice should be immediately corrected. If not, it's a rather glaring admission that ALF's quitting site is nothing more than a pharmaceutical industry drug store. http://www.becomeanex.org/the-ex...#being_ex/ share

Overall, a fair assessment of the ALF's quitting site would be that it strongly suggest that quitting without medication is far less successful than quitting with it.

Did the ALF read the National Cancer Institute's quitting method survey showing non-pharmacology quitters actually doing better? How about the long-term results from the UK's NHS Stop Smoking Program? Do you care about "truth" or is that simply some job security slogan to tag tobacco companies with?

I used to think cessation pharmacology researchers were simply misguided but it has been way too many years and there's now far too much evidence for them to continue to claim ignorance. I hate to say this but I now believe that most are either amazingly stupid or criminally culpable in the deaths of untold thousands of pharmacology scammed smokers, who trusted the fancy credentials and lies into their grave. It's Dr. Drug Rep all over. It's pretty sad that history will record that money was more important than their legacy.

By the way, I see the word "quitting" getting bantered about when discussing the e-cig. Until the pharm industry extracted nicotine from the tobacco plant all quitting involved both quitting nicotine and its delivery device. For the sake of accuracy and both youth and user understanding I'd encourage use of the word "transfer" instead of "quitting" as delivery continues.

Regards,

John R. Polito

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST ONTARIO AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS FOR TOBACCO DENORMALIZATION

We interrupt our Summer break once again to bring to you this important invitation from the New Tobacco Alliance Committee to join them in suing the Ontario and federal governments if you have been financially damaged because of anti-tobacco policy.

Excerpts from: Injured parties invited to join lawsuit

Individuals and businesses that have suffered financially due to government policies on tobacco have been invited to join a lawsuit.

Lawyers for the New Tobacco Alliance Committee filed a claim for $500-million against the Province of Ontario and the federal government in late June. If the matter proceeds to trial, NTAC will seek to have the claim certified as a class action lawsuit. "This lawsuit is based on what happened to us and how it happened to us," NTAC spokesperson John Van Daele, of Courtland, said yesterday. "We want the message out there that we're opening the door. How do you make your case stronger? There is strength in numbers. We know an injustice has been done and we're not prepared to let it go.

" McKenzie Lake Lawyers of London is representing NTAC. The firm has advised NTAC to cast its net as wide as possible. NTAC imposed a deadline to join the group last year. However, now that there is a possibility the suit will become a class action, the door has been opened to other tobacco farmers, convenience store operators, tobacco manufacturers and anyone else who has an argument for redress.

In a note to its members, NTAC blames government policies for undermining the legal market for tobacco with taxation policies that have fostered a black market. "Our governments have, over the last decade, tried to tax cigarettes out of the market," NTAC says. "The predictable result is that, instead, this has created a black market which delivers cigarettes to Canadians at a third the price of legal cigarettes.

Read the rest of the story at the link above.

VELVET GLOVE IRON FIST - THE BOOK / THE GOERLITZ TAPES

Christopher Snowdon is a historian, an independent researcher and a writer who has put tremendous amount of time and effort in his relentless search for the truth on tobacco and more particularly on the tobacco control movement.

In addition to his website , Velvet Glove, Iron Fist, that contains rich factual information on the issue, Mr. Snowdon has written a book on the history of anti-smoking that, pending its official publishing date of June 22nd, can be pre-ordered by clicking here .

As well, Mr. Snowdon has now imbedded in his website a series of taped interviews with David Goerlitz, who, after having been employed by the tobacco industry to represent ‘’The Winston Man’’ and having bitterly regretted representing Big Tobacco, now regrets to an even greater extent his association with what he calls the ‘’power hungry, egotistical, money grubbing, holier than thou hypocrites’’ in tobacco control. (See his comments in Dr. Siegel’s June 17/09 posting ‘’FDA Tobacco Bill Itself Admits that It is a Scam’’).

Enjoy, but especially don't neglect to use all this information to educate others who may still be unaware of the extensive corruption in the tobacco control movement.

DR. KAMAL CHAOUACHI BLOWS THE WHISTLE ON TOBACCO KONTROL

We refer you to an interview Chris Snowdon from Velvet Glove Iron Fist did with Dr. Kamal Chaouachi.

Dr. Chaouachi, a world renown hookah tobacco expert analyst and an enemy of smoking bans, is outraged by what he observes is happening in Tobacco Kontrol and has become very vocal about it.

He doesn’t have too many good words for any of the Big Pharma puppets starting from the top with the WHO right down to the globalink community – a list serve comprised of approximately 6000 members who among other things give their version of ‘’expert’’ advice to the decision makers in various countries that want to follow the tobacco de facto prohibition trend.

None of it surprises us in the least, but it’s good to have it confirmed from yet another scientist from the inside. Let’s hope Dr. Chaouachi’s actions will motivate more and more conscientious scientists to blow the whistle. Compared to the anti-tobacco industry the tobacco industry is beginning to look like boy scouts.

A global prison?

WHO BETWEEN TOBACCO AND ANTI-TOBACCO IS EXACERBATING POVERTY?

Straight from the great masters of public health - the WHO - who in an overflow of limitless compassion and immense concern for these less than fortunate citizens of the world, they state:

‘’Tobacco and poverty are inextricably linked. Many studies have shown that in the poorest households in some low-income countries as much as 10% of total household expenditure is on tobacco. This means that these families have less money to spend on basic items such as food, education and health care. In addition to its direct health effects, tobacco leads to malnutrition, increased health care costs and premature death. It also contributes to a higher illiteracy rate, since money that could have been used for education is spent on tobacco instead. Tobacco's role in exacerbating poverty has been largely ignored by researchers in both fields.’’

So God bless them, among others, they came up with two of the most efficient solutions in their exemplary philanthropic efforts to save the most impoverished of the citizens of the world and their families. And this despite their incessant proclamations that tobacco addiction is comparable to heroin and cocaine addictions! (Emphasis ours)

Experience has shown that there are many cost-effective tobacco control measures that can be used in different settings and that can have a significant impact on tobacco consumption. The most cost-effective strategies are population-wide public policies, like bans on direct and indirect tobacco advertising, tobacco tax and price increases, smoke-free environments in all public and workplaces, and large clear graphic health messages on tobacco packaging. All these measures are discussed on the provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

And let’s not forget that they also refuse to hire smokers thus setting the trend for an ever increasing number of employers to do the same!

Who between tobacco and anti-tobacco is exacerbating poverty?

Why is tobacco a public health priority?

''THE RIGHT THING TO DO'' NSRA STYLE

On our post of September 22, 2008 NSRA ATTEMPTS TO DISCREDIT C.A.G.E. , we reported that the NSRA (Non-Smokers’ Rights Association) listed C.A.G.E. as a front group for the tobacco industry.

After sending them a letter of demand to prove their allegations or retract them and apologize and since obviously they had no proof to back up their claims, they reclassified C.A.G.E. as an ‘’Organization that behaves like tobacco industry fronts’’ under the sub-category of ‘’Hospitality Associations’’ (how we ever became a hospitality association is a mystery, but that’s besides the point). They however did not feel that ‘’it was the right thing to do’’ to apologize albeit we insisted on such public apologies. The last letter we sent to them to this effect came back undelivered.

Since the NSRA for some obscure reason did not get our letter (or refused to accept its delivery), we are giving them another chance to publicly apologize for their allegations by posting apologies right in their website or if they so wish, right here in the comments of this blog. Don’t worry, we know better than to hold our breath waiting for such apologies.

For our readers’ benefit and perusal, we are posting the complete correspondence we exchanged with Mr. Garfield Mahood of the NSRA.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

C A N A D A
PROVINCE OF QUEBEC
DISTRICT OF MONTREAL

MISE EN DEMEURE

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NSRA Toronto:
720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 221
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2T9
Canada
Tel. (416) 928-2900
Fax. (416) 928-1860
e-mail: toronto@nsra-adnf.ca

Re: C.A.G.E. CANADA
False Accusations
March 2008 to Present

S I R S:

TAKE NOTICE THAT it was brought to our attention by Dr. Michael Siegel through his internet blog at http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/ that you categorize C.A.G.E. as a tobacco industry front group. You do not cite any evidence for this accusation. Other people and/or groups, however, do cite your statements as a source for similar accusations. This false and unsupported statement made by your organization is a direct attack on the integrity of the people who have been most active in directing C.A.G.E., such as Daniel Romano, David Romano, Iro Cyr, Lucy Brown, Joel Desmers. This defamation is also an affront to all of the well intentioned and dedicated individual members of C.A.G.E.

We ask you to either produce the proof to back up your accusations or immediately remove them from your website replacing them with a public apology. We ask that you respond by October 10th, 2008, after which we will have no choice but to proceed by any legal means necessary, without further notice to you..

At this time, we estimate that damages resulting from personal harassment and
defamation campaigns launched by people who depended upon exactly the sort of false information that you published on your website have caused the abovementioned individuals damages of in excess of $200,000, for which we are prepared to hold you jointly and severally liable.

C.A.G.E. CANADA, 3445 Drummond, Suite 307; Montreal, QC H3G 1X9
514-288-5016 info@cagecanada.ca; www.cagecanada.ca

Kindly communicate with us on or before October 10th, 2008 failing which we will have no alternative but to institute the legal proceedings deemed necessary in the circumstances.

AND DO GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.


MONTREAL, September 25th, 2008
DANIEL ROMANO, BCL, LL.B., MA
PRESIDENT
C.A.G.E. CANADA

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Non-Smokers' Rights Association
L'Association pour les droits des non-fumeurs

October 1, 2008

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Mr. Daniel Romano
President
C.A.G.E. Canada
3445 Drummond, Suite 307
Montreal, Quebec
H3G 1X9

Dear Mr. Romano:

Re: Exposing recent tobacco industry front groups and alliances

I am in receipt of your letter of September 25, 2008 which complains of statements made in the
above report. Your letter certainly triggered my curiosity. How, for example, could any
organization claim that its reputation was damaged when its website contains a sufficient number of passages that are so outside the boundaries of legitimate science that they ensure that the organization has no reputation worth saving? What standard of evidence would be required to substantiate an allegation that the Flat Earth Society could not be damaged by an accidental micharacterization?

But let me set aside for the moment how such an organization might persuade a court that it was something other than a source of pseudo-science and the monetary value that might be associated with that. Let me turn to your allegation. The report that is the subject of your concern was prepared by two employees, one of who is on leave and the other who is no longer with our Association. I had not read the report in question. It may have been drawn to my attention but I had not read it either on paper or on our website.

I will speak to my staff, obtain a report and address your complaint. If you have a legitimate concern, the report will be fixed, not because of any legal threat but because doing so is the right thing to do.

Sincerely,


Garfield Mahood, OC
Executive Director


---------------------------------------------------------------------------


C.A.G.E. Canada
3445 Drummond, #307
Montreal, QC H3G 1X9
October 8, 2008

Without Prejudice


NSRA Toronto:
720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 221
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2T9
Canada
Tel. (416) 928-2900
Fax. (416) 928-1860
e-mail: toronto@nsra-adnf.ca

Re: C.A.G.E. CANADA
False Accusations
March 2008 to Present

Dear Mr. Mahood,

Thank you for your response of October 1st. We are very happy to hear that your
organization has a concern with “the right thing to do,” and look forward to either seeing your
evidence for the allegations you made against us or a retraction and apology.

Regarding the Flat Earth Society – we find your raising of this matter very apropos.
When the likes of Galileo and Copernicus challenged the prevailing orthodoxy, the entrenched
dogma, the officially sanctioned creed, and the “science” of a flat earth, they were vilified and
called all manner of things.

That the Flat Earth Society still clings to a “scientific” thesis that was proven false is
now amusing. It would be much less amusing if this society and its antiquated mandate
received substantial government funding and was taken seriously by the media, as is the case
with some organizations and advocacy groups in Canada.

Sincerely Yours,
Daniel Romano, BCL, LL.B., MA
President
C.A.G.E. CANADA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C.A.G.E. Canada
3445 Drummond, #307
Montreal, QC H3G 1X9

October 16, 2008

Without Prejudice

NSRA Toronto:
720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 221
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2T9
Canada
Tel. (416) 928-2900
Fax. (416) 928-1860
e-mail: toronto@nsra-adnf.ca

ATTENTION: Garfield Mahood

Re: C.A.G.E. CANADA
False Accusations
March 2008 to Present

Dear Mr. Mahood,

We note that you have ceased publishing your unjustified and unfounded allegations
that C.A.G.E. is a tobacco front group. You now list C.A.G.E. as a group that acts in a manner
similar to a front group. We thank you for your effort to do “the right thing” in this matter.
Now how about that apology that you owe for the false representations with respect to
C.A.G.E.? Does not that also fall under the category of “the right thing to do”?

Sincerely,
Daniel Romano, BCL, LL.B., MA
President
C.A.G.E. CANADA

LEARNING FROM HISTORY - ALCOHOL PROHIBITION REPEAL DAY

On this 75th anniversary of the U.S.A. alcohol prohibition repeal we would like to turn your attention to the Alcohol, Problems and Solutions website and particularly the newly published sections on the damages that prohibition caused in the 13 years it was in force.

When reading the literature, please ponder on the alarming fact that prohibitionists are alive and well and working tirelessly to bring back a new form of alcohol prohibition which much like the tobacco ‘’puff by puff’’ prohibition, is insidiously brought about in societies ‘’drip by drip’’ through social engineering that is financially backed up by powerful organizations such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and propagandized by ‘’virtuous’’ front groups such as the WHO and MADD. The day it will have become obvious and we will have waken up to a form of prohibition which just like tobacco it will not have banned the product but all practical use of it instead, we will rightfully wonder how we never learn from history. The more indoctrinated among us will even hail the neo-prohibitionist healthist movement, sheepishly buying the propaganda that it is for the betterment of us imperfect humans that need superior minds to dictate the ‘’right way’’ to live and die. But just like 75 years ago, prohibition will have brought nothing but havoc, crime and social discrimination exactly as the tobacco neo-prohibition is doing to societies today.

To better illustrate this last point, we have taken an excerpt from the Alcohol, Problems and Solutions series of articles and highlighted with asterisks and red links some perfect modern day examples of what is happening with the tobacco issue as compared to alcohol prohibition back then and as it will undoubtedly happen in the future if we let the neo-prohibitionists go ahead with their insidious plans to demonize even moderate consumption of alcohol to the extent they have demonized even moderate consumption of tobacco.

Prohibition and Repeal in New York State
by David J. Hanson, Ph.D.

Many residents of New York state had hoped that Prohibition (1920-1933) would reduce crime, improve health and safety, promote economic prosperity, and increase public morality. However, experience would prove the Noble Experiment to fail on all counts.

Mob-controlled liquor quickly replaced legitimate tax-paying alcohol producers and retailers. ** Tobacco Road ** Gangster-owned speakeasies replaced neighborhood drinking establishments and within five years after Prohibition was imposed, there were over 100,000 speakeasies in New York City alone by some estimates. So many speakeasies operated that New York was known as the "City on a Still''.

Mobsters opened large nightclubs with elaborate floor shows and popular bands. ." ** Inside NYC's Smoking Speakeasies ** Speakeasies and nightclubs flourished because law enforcement officers were widely bribed. In essence, the speakeasies and nightclubs bought "protection" from the very people paid to enforce the law.

Hypocrisy was endemic. ** MPs 'smoking in Commons toilets' ** A raid on one of the city's most famous speakeasies caught a number of its politicians and other leading residents. The most famous and successful Prohibition agents in the state, "Izzy" Einstein and Moe Smith enjoyed nothing more after a hard day of vigorously enforcing Prohibition than sitting back and enjoying their favorite beverages: beers and cocktails.

Organized smuggling of alcohol from Canada and elsewhere quickly developed after Prohibition became the law. A "rum row" developed off the coast of New York City where ships lined up just beyond the three mile limit to off-load their cargoes onto speed boats under the cover of darkness. ** CORNWALL RCMP DETACHMENT SEIZE 430,000 CONTRABAND CIGARETTES **

In northern New York, bootlegging was especially rampant across the St. Lawrence River separating the state from Canada. Murder and hijacking were common in the dangerous but lucrative bootlegging business. ** Smuggling's price **

An increase in often deadly violence eroded support for Prohibition. Imprisonment reached a high after it became a felony to violate Prohibition. ** JAIL TERM, FINES AMONG PENALTIES FOR TOBACCO OFFENDERS ** The number of violators sent to jail doubled and the federal prison population in the state jumped from 5,000 to 12,000.

Federal Prohibition officials inadvertently promoted Repeal by announcing that effective enforcement in the state would require hiring several thousand more Prohibition agents
** Government of Canada invests $20 million in anti-tobacco activities **. The state legislature's reaction was to pass a law calling for a constitutional convention to overturn the disastrous "experiment in social engineering." Residents of New York State had come to the conclusion that Prohibition was not only impossible to enforce, but that it also created rather than solved problems.

After Congress approved the 21st Amendment for states to ratify if they wished, New Yorkers voted almost eight to one in favor of Repeal.

Over the decades, New York has made progress in modernizing its alcohol laws. In 2003, the state struck down its Blue law banning Sunday alcohol by allowing stores to open any six days, including Sunday, benefiting time-pressed consumers as well as retailers who now have the ability to operate like every other business in this 21st century economy. The success of the stores that opened on Sundays led the legislature to pass permanent seven day sales earlier this year. New York also recently repealed an archaic ban on spirits auctions. Slowly, the remaining vestiges of Prohibition appear to be disappearing in New York.

DENYING THE UNDENIABLE: FORCES RESPONSE TO ''NICOTINE NAZIS STRIKE AGAIN''

FORCES and many pro-liberty groups and activists have been often accused of being extreme in their assessment and characterization of anti-smoking proponents and other issue healthists such as anti-obesity, anti-alcohol or even anti-drug. Extreme healthists and public health in general have indeed often been described as the nico Nazis, the nico Talibans or Ayatollahs by their opponents. This characterization is so wide-spread now, (it can be read even in some of the more politically correct mainstream media) that one of the leading actors of modern anti-tobacco, Stanton Glantz (read more about him at DEBUNKING GLANTZ and at Stanton Glantz: Then and now ) co-authored a paper: "Nicotine Nazis strike again": a brief analysis of the use of Nazi rhetoric in attacking tobacco control advocacy, on this very subject.

As we have learnt to expect, the authors of the study, unwilling to let on that there are dissenting views from grass root groups with no ties to the tobacco industry, imply that any comparison to a totalitarian or fascist regime is directly or indirectly tobacco funded, thus outright dismissing with a stroke of their pen, the ever growing number of independent groups or citizens who disagree with the anti-tobacco heavy artillery war and other modern day exaggerated health crusades. Without even looking further into their paper one must concede that this tactic alone is totalitarian and typical of any great dictator.

FORCES has published a well articulated12 page response to the Schneider/Glantz paper outlining all the healthist similarities and lessons learnt from the Nazi regime that justify the characterization of public health and pharmaceutical funded modern day eugenicists as ‘’Nico Nazis’’.

Read it at:

DENYING THE UNDENIABLE: A RESPONSE TO “NICOTINE NAZIS STRIKE AGAIN”

SEVERE CONFLICTS OF INTERESTS REVEALED

Ever since we discovered that much of the healthist movement was heavily funded and even directed by pharmaceutical industry interests at the detriment of integrity, justice, honesty and health, we never ceased to expose this conflict of interest to our readers, the media, our elected officials and anyone who cared to listen. Please click on the label ‘’pharmaceutical industry’’ in English or ‘’industrie pharmaceutique’’ in French to read some of the articles we published on this subject. For a complete detailed analysis of pharmaceutical interests in public health, please link to: Clearing the Air and JUNKFOOD SCIENCE

At times we get the feeling that our cries are weak whispers in the vast universe, but at other times we are encouraged to carry on with our mission, one baby step at a time, one person at a time, one politician at a time. Today is one of those encouraging days.

The latest article in Dr. Siegel’s blog has indeed brought hope that the truth will eventually surface and it looks like the day may come sooner than we had imagined.

Dr. Siegel’s article doesn't need much commenting except to say that no one can fool all of the people all of the time and if litigation is the only way left to bring back integrity and save lives, livelihoods and our trust in public health, then let’s bring it on. One small paragraph from his article linked below says it all: ''The scientific integrity of the tobacco control movement has been tarnished by its lucrative financial relationship with Big Pharma. But what's worse, people's lives may actually be at stake in this game.''

Chantix Lawsuits Piling Up; Dangers from Severe Financial Conflicts of Interests of Tobacco Control Researchers and Institutions Revealed

REVEALING THE CATHY BELL HYPOCRISY

For the past two years, a certain “Cathy Bell” has been making “her” presence felt on the Internet. “She” regularly frequented many of the forums, newspaper websites, “wiki” websites and discussion boards dealing with the tobacco issue. Therein, “she” used very unscrupulous and unethical propaganda tactics, engaging in ceaseless ad hominem attacks on anyone who disagreed with any element of the tobacco control industry’s agenda.

“Cathy Bell’s” own apparent agenda was not to engage in civilized debate, but rather to insult and discredit anybody who dared to disagree with her hard-core prohibitionist point of view. Rather than accepting invitations to serious and fact-based discussion, “Cathy Bell” preferred to resort to the tactic of poisoning the well, trying to discredit her adversaries by any means. Her most odious tactic, however, was to choose particular opponents who distinguished themselves the most and to launch a relentless barrage of barbs attacking their integrity, honesty, intelligence and motives. Her apparent goal was to make her most effective adversaries pay a personal price for opposing her points of view. Perhaps “she” sought to make an example of them: “If you dare to stand up and speak out, if you dare to contradict the government approved wisdom of the pharmaceutical companies and the ‘non-profit’ franchises that they support, you will be made to suffer in terms of your career, your livelihood, your reputation, and even your personal life”. Her mission was to squelch any kind of dissent or opposition. Of all of “Cathy Bell’s” targets, “she” reserved the greatest amount of harassment for David Romano, one of C.A.G.E.’s founders.

Cathy Bell methodically researched Dr. Romano’s academic and professional history, noting every place he had studied and worked, and proceeded to, over a period of two years, send bombardments of thousands of e-mails to his past and present work colleagues (he works in a field unrelated to the tobacco issue) and to anyone else whom “she” thought may have some connection or interaction with Dr. Romano. These e-mails were full of libels, innuendos and accusations regarding David Romano’s motives and character. “She” claimed that other C.A.G.E. officers and supporters must be deluded saps under David Romano’s mental control (“she” was apparently incapable of understanding how anyone could disagree with the government harassing and coercing people for their own good). Without any basis or foundation whatsoever, “she” warned Dr. Romano’s employers that he might be prone to violence and may pose a threat to his colleagues, and “she” claimed “herself” to be in physical danger from his “fanatical” cult of followers who were members of C.A.G.E.. “She” even created nearly a dozen geocities websites as part of her harassment and defamation campaign against David Romano. Some of these sites even included death threats against C.A.G.E.’s founders. All the while, “she” insisted that “Cathy Bell” was her legal name, yet for some of her regular e-mail salvos, “she” occasionally used other pseudonyms such as “Diane Smith”, or “Benny”. “She” also used a convoluted system to maintain “her” internet anonymity.

With the help of the Montreal Police, C.A.G.E. has succeeded in uncovering Cathy Bell’s true identity and exact address. It turns out that “she” lives on Sherbrooke Street in the West part of Montreal. It turns out that “she” is actually an average-looking young man whom, for the time being, we will identify only as “Mr. Jones”. Obviously, “she” is a man with far too much time on his hands. C.A.G.E. looks forward to chatting with Mr. Jones in court, and we have already served him with the preliminary documents for initiating a civil law suit. It will be very interesting to find out whether he was also lying when he insisted that he was acting out of his own initiative and was not getting his cues from any organization with a stake in this issue.

But law suits can be expensive. The Directors and core members of C.A.G.E. have already donated and/or pledged a lot of money from their own pockets in order to help with the investigation of “Cathy Bell” and to prepare the law suit, not to mention hundreds of hours of personal time. We need help in order to bring this person to justice and the only people who can help us are the same ones who support C.A.G.E.’s message and mission. At this time, we have already raised $6,000 for this legal fight, and anticipate the need for another $14,000 at the very least. Anyone wishing to donate funds for a long and very justified legal process is invited to do so via check or via our Paypal account located on the C.A.G.E. website at:
http://www.cagecanada.ca/index.php?pr=Support We will publish regular updates of the progress of the case, and C.A.G.E. promises to keep all individual donors informed of the progress and details of the proceedings.

It is important that those such as “Cathy Bell” and his supporters and allies who would use unscrupulous tactics and personal attacks to squelch dissent, learn that those who have the will and the courage to stand up for the rights of others against government encroachment most certainly have the will and the drive to defend their own rights against such cowardly and unethical harassment campaigns. We hope that you will stand with us in this battle, and stand up for those who are willing to devote the most to protecting our freedoms and liberties.

THE ''WHO'' SPONSORED ''PASSIVE DRINKING'' CAMPAIGN, COMING SOON TO A NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR YOU

If you are neither a smoker, nor obese, if you don’t drink, smoke the occasional joint, or gamble, if you eat all the right foods and do all the appropriate exercises, in other words if you are perfect or a semi-god, you have little to worry about… for now. Please stop reading and keep applauding the WHO and governments that sheepishly obey their guidelines. If however you’re worried that even your perfection will be used against you and you will eventually be blamed for living too long and thus wasting precious resources more useful to the young and productive generations, then maybe you should continue reading because we certainly can’t offer you any guarantees to appease your worries.

As we have repeatedly been cautionning for the last three years, the success of the passive smoking campaign that many have selfishly applauded without listening to those with insight as to the precedent it would be setting, has indeed opened the flood gates of the modern day eugenic tactics.

First they came for the ‘’filthy smoker’’, relying on citizens who not only hate the smoke but who have been conditioned to fear it. Then they came for the obese relying once again that there wouldn’t be too many people sympathetic to the ‘’glutton fatso’s’’ plight! Now they are just about finished polishing the ‘’ passive drinking ‘’ campaign stacking the cards as high as the tobacco campaign has taught them, relying again that not too many people will stand up for the frightening killer, the ‘’disgusting lush’’.

Fear mongering and guilt campaigns have become the trademark of the healthist movement and unless they are stopped using loud protesting and feet stumping -- the only weapons we have against their billions -- you can then be sure that even perfection will not satisfy them and one day they will indeed find a way to hold you responsible for living too long and wasting nature’s resources.

Thanks to our international coalition activist Christine, at: http://www.raucherbewegung.eu for the link to the article below and these additional links that you may want to follow: The war on ‘passive drinking’ , Europe to crack down on ‘passive drinking’, says leaked report

World leaders plan 'guilt campaign' to persuade drinkers to reduce alcohol intake

World leaders are launching a war on alcohol, using as their main weapon the millions of men, women and children whose lives have been destroyed by drink.

The World Health Organisation's global strategy will aim to match the success of campaigns which have made smokers feel guilty about the harm secondhand smoke does to others.

Rather than focusing on the damage drinkers are doing to their own bodies, the WHO wants to highlight the suffering of the innocent victims of drinkdrivers, domestic violence, child abuse and yobbery, this week's New Scientist reports.

The unprecedented drive, to be discussed at the WHO's annual health assembly next month, comes amid mounting concern about the devastating effects of alcohol on society.

Figures show that 40 per cent of domestic violence in EU countries is committed by someone who has been drinking.

Similarly, 40 per cent of all murders are carried out by someone who has been drinking and 10,000 road deaths a year in the EU are alcohol related.

In the UK, an estimated half a million a year are victims of alcohol-related crime - and a million children suffer at the hand of drinkers.

The WHO plan, due in draft form by 2010, will not be legally binding.

Instead, it will include a "menu" of measures that countries can implement.

Likely measures include raising taxes on alcohol and clamping down on advertising and drink-driving.

Governments will also be encouraged to stand up to the alcohol industry's lobbying against price rises and restrictions on availability.

Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians said: "The tipping point for banning smoking in public places was third party damage.

"That is much greater, in terms of violence and damage to unborn children, the first sexual experience and the percentage of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases."

GOVERNMENT INDUCED BULLYING

A very frightened and concerned woman wrote to us at the C.A.G.E. forum recently. She dropped by to tell us the story of her son almost losing his life because of tobacco smoke. No, not because he inhaled it, not because it made him ill, well… why don’t we let the story speak for itself:

G'day and thank you.... My first time with CAGE...I sent the following to the Globe 'n Mail, to MacLean's, to every last Ontario Liberal MPP involved with 'Health', my MPP, CTV, a few local newspapers, one of which is rural and to one I've recently met on-line through 'My Choice' who encouraged me to post this here for Michelle and Iro. So, here you have it...

A month or so ago 911 whisked our son away, saving his life, treating me with the same contempt the medical professionals at the local hospital did. Superficial first glance assumption what with the current social culture and his problem solved. It's his Mother who smokes. His Mother, who if she really cared would quit. Stereotyping and Stigma too! We mentioned Hantivirus as a concern to be told I was in denial. Huh?

We sent our son away from this house that day and went straight to our Family Doctor. All considering our son and I did a lot of wall ripping out late last summer in our over a century old home, which included discovering mice nests roughly eighteen inches by three or more feet tall between the walls to remove. Yes, we were masked, gloved and well-ventilated. Hantivirus a legitimate concern these medical professionals turned a blind eye to, minds made up including me being in denial. Thank goodness it's not Hantivirus, rather our son's asthma has sprung off the wall due to this house, it's as I thought, Toxic to him! Not only would his medication have hardly worked here, as soon as it was done, he'd be suffocating again...911 again...medical professionals once again treating us with the contempt of narrow minds and self-limiting perspective/concern. Dust Mites alone can send our son into a tailspin of life!

This medical attitude needs to be exposed as frightening, if not life-threatening as it was to us. How many other people, age doesn't matter, are being misdiagnosed or not taken seriously directly due to the current medical holier than Thou stance that seems to say smoking, second-hand smoke, end of story? How many people are being stereotyped suffering from social alienation construed as 'bad' people for smoking...at a glance, without hesitation no less. People don't know me, they don't know what I've gone through, what efforts have been exerted, nothing. Yet, the medical profession itself, seems to be a willing promoter of mental health disturbances in it's quick to judge stance that almost cost our son his life. I think this is a very serious problem that needs to be publicly addressed.

You can't have the CAMH and other like associations trying to eliminate Stereotyping and applied Stigma when it's government led and induced. To me, it's little more than government legitimizing bullying....AKA...Stereotyping, for which our son almost lost his life. This is serious. Smoking, no more than Asthma, any illness isn't a character flaw and shouldn't be construed as such. This state of affairs is morally wrong.

And this folks is what tobacco control ‘’for our own good’’ has become. A dangerous dogmatic movement that takes no notice of whatever harm it causes in the process. It matters very little to tobacco control and their faithfully blind believers what collateral damage it leaves behind in its passing. As our correspondent very eloquently expresses, tobacco control is breeding bullies stamped with government approval. A cold-hearted irresponsible doctrine that doesn’t care about science, truth, progress, morality, or ethics. Smokers are indignant parents, killers, abusers, that must be accused and embarrassed at every opportunity and be punished by any possible means including death.

For what it’s worth we have offered this woman our help with the bureaucracy of filing official complaints to every government body in existence. But above all, we feel that stories like hers must be told far and wide. The politically correct media won’t report them unless of course there is blood and even then they will minimize the embarrassment to public health. Tobacco control have to be exposed for the bullies they are at every turn.

If you too have been a victim of discrimination and harassment because you smoke, please drop us a line. If the media won’t report it, this blog and other similar ones will!

THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS, NO MATTER HOW DESPICABLE THESE MEANS ARE

In a response to Dr. Michael Siegel's comment in his blog about the failure of a scientist to disclose the funding she received from tobacco industry interests for her research on CT screening for lung cancer, Mr. Bill Godshall, Executive Director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, unwillingly (or perhaps even willingly) exhibited the dogmatic ideology that characterizes the tobacco control movement: The end justifies any and all means.

His comment was not only devoid of any scientific merit and human compassion, but it eloquently illustrated that any means, ethical or unethical, moral or immoral, must be employed towards coercing smokers into quitting.

After reading such a comment from an executive director of a public health organization, it makes it abundantly clear that scrutiny for truthfulness and scientific accuracy of anything spewed by the tobacco control dogmatists, is an absolute necessity.

The comment (color emphasis ours) :

While shocked that Dr. Claudia Henschke's research didn't disclose Liggett's funding, and that she is now claiming public health advocates knew about the funding source, CT scans have the potential to increase the dismal 15% five-year survival rate for lung cancer, and may prove to be the single most effective smoking cessation tool.

Mike wrote:

"having 90% of your patients with nodules worrying unnecessarily for 3 months hardly seems acceptable to me."

I cannot think of a more effective incentive (than worrying about having early stage lung cancer) to encourage smokers to quit smoking.

Mike also wrote:

"Ninety percent of the time, the test is wrong. That's usually viewed as being unacceptable for a screening test."Since false positive tests could be even more beneficial for the health of the smoker (when worrying about a false positive convinces the smoker to quit) than true positive tests (whose resulting treatment is not going to save the lives of many or most lung cancer patients), CT lung cancer screenings of smokers is likely to even more effective as a smoking cessation aid than as a lung cancer screening tool.

A caveat is that false positive CT lung cancer tests in ex-smokers (who comprise slightly greater than half of new lung cancer cases) is likely to cause unnecessary worrying, without providing any benefit. Thus, perhaps somewhat different CT lung screening guidelines should be considered for current smokers and for ex-smokers.

Bill Godshall 03.28.08 - 12:09 pm #

DISSIDENCE OR ORTHODOXY?

Dr Michael Siegel, prominent anti-tobacco activist, was recently the guest of Mr. Gian Turci at a FORCES round table discussion on the present state of tobacco control.

During the 35 minute discussion, Dr Siegel gave his insightful opinion on how his movement shifted from tobacco control to smoker control, how his disagreement with some of the more extreme tactics of a movement he helped create has cost him human and financial damages and how tobacco control is making it impossible for tobacco companies to research for new technologies towards a less harmful cigarette.

Listen to the discussion at: Dissidence or Orthodoxy ?

Read Dr Siegel’s take of the interview: Dissidence or Orthodoxy? My Interview on FORCES International Roundtable

ENOUGH WITH THE LIES AND BULLYING

Finally, an opinion piece from a well known and respected writer, Mr. George Jonas, found its way into the mainstream media, the National Post.

On behalf of its membership and all citizens who value truth more than the ‘’ends justify the means’’ philosophy, C.A.G.E. would like to thank Mr. Jonas for having the courage to speak up against the conventional wisdom and political correctness that has stifled the truth for too long.

We hope other journalists will follow his example and that we will begin to see the conventional wisdom challenged at every opportunity. It’s the only way society can progress towards finding fair and balanced solutions for all citizens without having to resort to lies and bullying.

We encourage everyone to express their point of view on this issue by writing letters to the editor at the National Post here.

Excerpts of Truth is the first casualty of activism

For the record, I don't smoke, don't allow children in my car and own no tobacco stocks. I believe staying away from cigarettes would save lives (as would staying away from fast-food, fast sex and fast demagoguery). Educational efforts to gradually phase out smoking are fine by me.

What isn't fine is bullying and lying. In reverse order, actually, since the anti-smoking lobby has to lie before it can bully. A key lie continues to be that the health hazards of secondhand smoke have been scientifically established.

……………….

In 1986, when then-U.S. surgeon-general C. Everett Koop wanted to see cigarettes banned, he made a flat statement, backed by the considerable weight of his office, that the effects of second-hand smoke were responsible for 2,000 deaths in the United States. Challenged by scientists, he blithely retreated, saying that while he may have pulled the figure out of a hat, it was all in a good cause. The principle was right.

But the principle wasn't right. A 1987 study by the American National Academy of Sciences found no evidence that second-hand smoke jeopardizes the health of non-smokers. As even Koop admitted, the majority of 16 studies on environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer found no statistically significant relationship. (One field study concluded that a nonsmoker would have to sit behind an office desk for 550 continuous hours before being exposed to the nicotine equivalent of a single cigarette.)

If your aim is to ban or regulate smoking, you must show that smoking harms non-smokers. And if you can't show it because the evidence is equivocal, you must create an atmosphere of hysteria.

In 1993, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) went one better than Koop. They took the official position that second-hand cigarette smoke is a health hazard, responsible for 3,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S.

Five years later, a federal judge in North Carolina found the EPA made serious mistakes evaluating the risk of second-hand smoke. Federal District Judge William Osteen ruled in 1998 that the "EPA publicly committed to a conclusion before research had begun," and that the "EPA disregarded information and made findings on selective information."

The EPA defended itself by saying it had never claimed that minimal exposure to second-hand smoke posed a huge individual cancer risk. It only said that, while the lung cancer risk from second-hand smoke was relatively small compared to the risk from direct smoking, unlike a smoker who chooses to smoke, the nonsmoker's risk was often involuntary.

………………

I have nothing against the EPA's agenda; I only dislike coercion and lies. I'm not in favour of environmental smoke, only opposed to environmental hysteria. And I marvel that we don't even blink anymore as government metastasizes into such private spaces as our cars.