ANTI-SMOKING FANATICS

1984 again!

Key West is located in Monroe County. The County either recently passed or is considering passing a law prohibiting County employees from smoking. Even at home. Nicotine testing will be done to make sure no one is cheating.

Perfectly proper to oppose smoking. This however would be a step too far.

I will be writing a column on the issue soon in KONK Life.

Recall “…that government is best which governs least.” History is not sure who uttered the words first. Thomas Jefferson or Henry David Thoreau.

I sometimes think I am becoming more Republican by day.

Kentucky Derby yesterday. I joined my friends at Don’s Place for the event. Always a fun time. Joanie won the prize for best hat. Congratulations, Joanie!

During the coarse of my lifetime, I have been fortunate to attend many major sporting events. Never a Kentucky Derby. Hopefully, some day.

The Chart Room’s Emily was at the Derby yesterday.

Met a couple from Rochester, NY who were watching the Derby at Don’s Place. Mike and Sarah. They were married in Key West seven years ago. And return yearly to celebrate the event. Mike owns a bar in Rochester. O’Laughlins. My upstate New York friends, stop in. Mike appeared a nice guy with a warm personality.

Thursday evening was spectacular at bocce. When I left, my team had already defeated one of the best teams in the league 2 games to 0. I got the result of third game today at Don’s. We won number 3, also! Wowie! We needed it!

We had been playing poorly. However the last three game nights, we won 8 out 0f 9 games. Maybe we have returned! From close to the bottom, we have edged up to 5th place. There are two nights left.  Six games. We have to win 4 of the 6 to make the playoffs.

I worked on one of my books yesterday till 5 when I left for Don’s. It is about Greece. My first Greece trip 3 years ago. My publisher wanted the book. It is not hard. I am taking my 31 days of blogs re Greece and elaborating on some of the experiences. Like my attempt at climbing the volcano. As funny as it read, a rereading recently indicated I had left out a lot of truly other amusing things that happened to me that day. I am glad I survived the attempt.

Growing Up Italian is taking a brief back seat. Greece should be wrapped up at my end in 2-3 weeks.

My house is still on the market. Another open house tomorrow from 1-4. I am becoming discouraged as to whether it will sell. Such is life!

Enjoy your day!

 

 

17 comments on “ANTI-SMOKING FANATICS

  1. “Recall “…that government is best which governs least.” History is not sure who uttered the words first. Thomas Jefferson or Henry David Thoreau.”

    I concur Lou, we have way too much government and the government we do have is doing what we do not need such as endless overseas, treasure-draining wars and tax cuts for multi-national corporations. The Chinese now own Smithfield Hams in Virginia, the once quintessential American agricultural enterprise. While Congress bickers over the ACA which is a done deal, warts and all, and whether Gays can legally marry (God who cares, let them already); America is fading away. I wish we would all think about that when we vote this year, exactly what is the fool you are voting for, donkey or elephant really going to do. I will venture they will cash in personally, pontificate endlessly on sound bites and polls, and do nothing but line their personal nest. I say this about both parties who have what was once a democracy totally rigged now. Welcome to Rome circa 400 AD.

  2. Judge doesnt accept statistical studies as proof of LC causation!

    It was McTear V Imperial Tobacco. Here is the URL for both my summary and the Judge’s ‘opinion’ (aka ‘decision’):

    http://boltonsmokersclub.wordpress.com/the-mctear-case-the-analysis/

    (2.14) Prof Sir Richard Doll, Mr Gareth Davies (CEO of ITL). Prof James Friend and
    Prof Gerad Hastings gave oral evidence at a meeting of the Health Committee in
    2000. This event was brought up during the present action as putative evidence that
    ITL had admitted that smoking caused various diseases. Although this section is quite
    long and detailed, I think that we can miss it out. Essentially, for various reasons, Doll
    said that ITL admitted it, but Davies said that ITL had only agreed that smoking might
    cause diseases, but ITL did not know. ITL did not contest the public health messages.
    (2.62) ITL then had the chance to tell the Judge about what it did when the suspicion
    arose of a connection between lung cancer and smoking. Researchers had attempted
    to cause lung cancer in animals from tobacco smoke, without success. It was right,
    therefore, for ITL to ‘withhold judgement’ as to whether or not tobacco smoke caused
    lung cancer.

    [9.10] In any event, the pursuer has failed to prove individual causation.
    Epidemiology cannot be used to establish causation in any individual case, and the
    use of statistics applicable to the general population to determine the likelihood of
    causation in an individual is fallacious. Given that there are possible causes of lung
    cancer other than cigarette smoking, and given that lung cancer can occur in a nonsmoker,
    it is not possible to determine in any individual case whether but for an
    individual’s cigarette smoking he probably would not have contracted lung cancer
    (paras.[6.172] to [6.185]).
    [9.11] In any event there was no lack of reasonable care on the part of ITL at any
    point at which Mr McTear consumed their products, and the pursuer’s negligence
    case fails. There is no breach of a duty of care on the part of a manufacturer, if a
    consumer of the manufacturer’s product is harmed by the product, but the consumer
    knew of the product’s potential for causing harm prior to consumption of it. The
    individual is well enough served if he is given such information as a normally
    intelligent person would include in his assessment of how he wishes to conduct his
    life, thus putting him in the position of making an informed choice (paras.[7.167] to
    [7.181]).

  3. This pretty well destroys the Myth of second hand smoke:

    http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/28/16741714-lungs-from-pack-a-day-smokers-safe-for-transplant-study-finds?lite

    Lungs from pack-a-day smokers safe for transplant, study finds.

    By JoNel Aleccia, Staff Writer, NBC News.

    Using lung transplants from heavy smokers may sound like a cruel joke, but a new study finds that organs taken from people who puffed a pack a day for more than 20 years are likely safe.

    What’s more, the analysis of lung transplant data from the U.S. between 2005 and 2011 confirms what transplant experts say they already know: For some patients on a crowded organ waiting list, lungs from smokers are better than none.

    • Ive done the math here and this is how it works out with second ahnd smoke and people inhaling it!

      The 16 cities study conducted by the U.S. DEPT OF ENERGY and later by Oakridge National laboratories discovered:

      Cigarette smoke, bartenders annual exposure to smoke rises, at most, to the equivalent of 6 cigarettes/year.

      146,000 CIGARETTES SMOKED IN 20 YEARS AT 1 PACK A DAY.

      A bartender would have to work in second hand smoke for 2433 years to get an equivalent dose.

      Then the average non-smoker in a ventilated restaurant for an hour would have to go back and forth each day for 119,000 years to get an equivalent 20 years of smoking a pack a day! Pretty well impossible ehh!

  4. Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence: Third Edition

    nap.edu

    This sorta says it all

    These limits generally are based on assessments of health risk and calculations of concentrations that are associated with what the regulators believe to be negligibly small risks. The calculations are made after first identifying the total dose of a chemical that is safe (poses a negligible risk) and then determining the concentration of that chemical in the medium of concern that should not be exceeded if exposed individuals (typically those at the high end of media contact) are not to incur a dose greater than the safe one.

    So OSHA standards are what is the guideline for what is acceptable ”SAFE LEVELS”

    OSHA SAFE LEVELS

    All this is in a small sealed room 9×20 and must occur in ONE HOUR.

    For Benzo[a]pyrene, 222,000 cigarettes.

    “For Acetone, 118,000 cigarettes.

    “Toluene would require 50,000 packs of simultaneously smoldering cigarettes.

    Acetaldehyde or Hydrazine, more than 14,000 smokers would need to light up.

    “For Hydroquinone, “only” 1250 cigarettes.

    For arsenic 2 million 500,000 smokers at one time.

    The same number of cigarettes required for the other so called chemicals in shs/ets will have the same outcomes.

    So, OSHA finally makes a statement on shs/ets :

    Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)…It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded.” -Letter From Greg Watchman, Acting Sec’y, OSHA.

    Why are their any smoking bans at all they have absolutely no validity to the courts or to science!

  5. ANTI-SMOKING FANATICS

    It was Hitlers own people who coined the and invented the phrase PASSIVE SMOKING for hitlers own anti-smoking agenda.

    Hitler’s Anti-Tobacco Campaign

    One particularly vile individual, Karl Astel — upstanding president of Jena University, poisonous anti-Semite, euthanasia fanatic, SS officer, war criminal and tobacco-free Germany enthusiast — liked to walk up to smokers and tear cigarettes from their unsuspecting mouths. (He committed suicide when the war ended, more through disappointment than fear of hanging.) It comes as little surprise to discover that the phrase “passive smoking” (Passivrauchen) was coined not by contemporary American admen, but by Fritz Lickint, the author of the magisterial 1100-page Tabak und Organismus (“Tobacco and the Organism”), which was produced in collaboration with the German AntiTobacco League.

    • Yet a simple look at the chemistry shows us that its:

      About 90% of secondary smoke is composed of water vapor and ordinary air with a minor amount of carbon dioxide. The volume of water vapor of second hand smoke becomes even larger as it quickly disperses into the air,depending upon the humidity factors within a set location indoors or outdoors. Exhaled smoke from a smoker will provide 20% more water vapor to the smoke as it exists the smokers mouth.

      4 % is carbon monoxide.

      6 % is those supposed 4,000 chemicals to be found in tobacco smoke. Unfortunatley for the smoke free advocates these supposed chemicals are more theorized than actually found.What is found is so small to even call them threats to humans is beyond belief.Nanograms,picograms and femptograms……
      (1989 Report of the Surgeon General p. 80).

  6. If you’re afraid of second-hand smoke, you should also avoid cars, restaurants…and don’t even think of barbecuing.

    here are just some of the chemicals present in tobacco smoke and what else contains them:

    Arsenic, Benzine, Formaldehyde.

    Arsenic- 8 glasses of water = 200 cigarettes worth of arsenic

    Benzine- Grilling of one burger = 250 cigarettes

    Formaldehyde – cooking a vegetarian meal = 100 cigarettes

    When you drink your 8 glasses of tap water (64 ounces) a day, you’re safely drinking up to 18,000 ng of arsenic by government safety standards of 10 nanograms/gram (10 ng/gm = 18,000ng/64oz) for daily consumption.

    Am I “poisoning” you with the arsenic from my cigarette smoke? Actually, with the average cigarette putting out 32 ng of arsenic into the air which is then diluted by normal room ventilation for an individual exposure of .032 ng/hour, you would have to hang out in a smoky bar for literally 660,000 hours every day (yeah, a bit hard, right?) to get the same dose of arsenic that the government tells you is safe to drink.

    So you can see why claims that smokers are “poisoning” people are simply silly.

    You can stay at home all day long if you don’t want all those “deadly” chemicals around you, but in fact, those alleged 4000-7000 theorized chemicals in cigarettes are present in many foods, paints etc. in much larger quantities. And as they are present in cigarettes in very small doses, they are harmless. Sorry, no matter how much you like the notion of harmful ETS, it’s a myth.

  7. Next, there will be mandated weigh-ins and monitoring of body fat percentages. Following that, alcohol intake will be restricted. Finally, daily exercise will be mandated. Right?

  8. So, I take it that Harleyrider is a smoker. Fine, do what you like, just so long as it doesn’t bother me.

    But, I hate cigarette/cigar smoke. It stinks. Its just that simple. I want to have a drink or a meal without having to smell that smoke from some inconsiderate person.

    • In case you aren’t aware of it, the large corporations are already monitoring body fat of their employees. I worked for one of the largest banks in the US and they have been doing it for years. Sometimes Big Brother isn’t the government after all.

      • The Medicalizing of America

        Part I: The Numbers Game

        Medicalize: “To identify or categorize (a condition or behavior) as being a disorder requiring medical treatment or intervention,” American Heritage Dictionary.

        Responses to virtually all questions, medical and otherwise fall into two categories: 1. Those having a finite number of answers, including yes, no, or in-between, for example “are you hungry?” or “are you sick?” and 2. Questions having a range of answers or values. Biologic and other scientific measurements fall into this latter category and include such things as weight, age, height, blood pressure, blood chemical values, such as glucose, cholesterol, PSA, etc. Where we get into trouble is in deciding, particularly in medicine, what is indeed normal and what is not. No matter where we place the dividing line or cutoff point, we are faced with an irresolvable medical dilemma.

        If we make the cutoff between normal and abnormal too low, we include too many normal in the abnormal group (called false positives, a Type I error); if the cutoff is too high, we include an excess of abnormal in the normal group (false negatives, Type II error). In the first instance we call too many well people sick, and in the latter, too many sick people well. (We are assuming the spectrum of low to high corresponds to the range of normal to abnormal; sometimes this range is reversed.)

        Over the years, various cutoff points for normal values have been based on generally accepted statistical and common sense clinical grounds. For example we have “normal” values for fasting and non-fasting blood sugars, upon which the diagnosis of diabetes is based; the “normal” level for blood pressure, defining the condition, hypertension; cutoff points for weight, defining obesity; and “normal” levels of blood lipids (HDL,LDL and total cholesterol) which for some even define the presence of heart disease (sic!). In what appears as a fatally misguided hope of extending treatment benefits to as many citizens as possible, various professional societies as well as Government Agencies have indeed changed our definitions of disease with unforeseen consequences. Specifically, in the present climate of change driven by a perceived need to keep us healthy and long-lived, these cutoff points have been lowered progressively and so drastically as virtually to create a nation of patients.

        In a revealing article in Effective Clinical Practice (March/April 1999) Lisa M. Schwartz and Steven Woloshin conclude that the number of people with at least one of four major medical conditions (actually risk factors) has increased dramatically in the past decade because of changes in the definition of abnormality. Using data abstracted from over 20,700 patients included in this Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III, 1988-1994) conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, the authors calculated the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, elevated cholesterol, and being overweight under the old and the new definitions and calculated the net change (i.e., number of new cases). Here are the results reported in the above article.

        Diabetes:

        Old Definition: Blood sugar > 140 mg/dl
        People under old definition: 11.7 million
        New Definition: Blood sugar > 126 mg/dl
        People added under new definition: 1.7 million
        Percent increase: 15%

        The definition was changed in 1997 by the American Diabetes Association and WHO Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus.

        Hypertension:

        High blood pressure is reported as two numbers, systolic or peak pressure and diastolic pressure when heart is at rest) in mm Hg.

        Old Definition: cutoff Blood Pressure > 160/100
        People under old definition: 38.7 million
        New Definition: Blood Pressure > 140/90
        People added under new definition: 13.5 million
        Percent Increase: 35%

        The definition was changed in 1997 by U.S. Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure.

        Prehypertension, a new category created in 2003: blood pressure from 120/80 to 138/89 includes 45 million additional people! If one includes this category, we have a grand total of 97.2 million total numbers of hypertensives and prehypertensives (whatever that is).

        High (Total) Cholesterol:

        Old Definition: Cholesterol > 240 mg/dl total cholesterol
        People under old definition: 49.5 million
        New Definition: Cholesterol > 200 mg/dl total cholesterol
        People added under new definition: 42.6 million
        Percent increase: 86%

        The definition was changed in 1998 by U.S. Air Force/Texas Coronary Atherosclerosis Prevention Study.

        Overweight:

        Body Mass Index (BMI) is defined as the ratio of weight (in kg) to height (in meters) squared and is an inexact measure of body fat, though it supposedly establishes cutoff points of normal weight, overweight, and obesity.

        Old definition: BMI > 28 (men), BMI > 27 (women)
        People under old definition: 70.6 million
        New definition: BMI > 25
        People added under new definition: 30.5 million
        Percent Increase: 43%

        The definition was changed in 1998 by U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

        “The new definitions ultimately label 75 percent of the adult U.S. population as diseased,” conclude the two researchers. They add cautiously that “…the extent to which new ‘patients’ would ultimately benefit from early detection and treatment of these conditions is unknown. Whether they would experience important physical or psychological harm is an open question.”

        We seem to live in an equal opportunity consumer culture tyrannized by the fear of growing “epidemics” going by the leading risk brand names, High Blood Pressure, Obesity, Diabetes, and High Cholesterol. Just read the papers, peruse the Internet, or turn on your TV to learn what the Government watchdogs, the consensus insurgency, and the other image makers have to say about our disastrous state of health.

        Several related questions arise when we consider the implications of these new definitions of disease (actually disease risk-markers). First how did these official and semi-official watchdogs achieve their status of “guideline-makers,”who appoints them and why, and how powerful an influence do they wield in terms of medical practice? Finally, one has to wonder what is the rationale for adding over 86 million new “patients” (not counting 45 million “prehypertensives”) to our already staggering over-the-top healthcare cost.

        Coming soon, these and other issues will be examined in our next newsletter.

        Martin F. Sturman, MD, FACP

        Copyright 2005, Mathemedics, Inc.

        • If you need a Public Health Epidemic its easy just lower the standards at which a disease entity is identified and Voila Instant Government made healthscare at your door step!

      • Mississippi Legislature
        2008 Regular Session
        House Bill 282
        House Calendar | Senate Calendar | Main Menu
        Additional Information | All Versions

        Current Bill Text: |

        Description: Food establishments; prohibit from serving food to any person who is obese.

        Background Information:
        Disposition: Active
        Deadline: General Bill/Constitutional Amendment
        Revenue: No
        Vote type required: Majority
        Effective date: July 1, 2008

        History of Actions:
        1 01/25 (H) Referred To Public Health and Human Services;Judiciary B

        —– Additional Information —–

        House Committee: Public Health and Human Services*, Judiciary B

        Principal Author: Mayhall
        Additional Authors: Read, Shows

        Title: AN ACT TO PROHIBIT CERTAIN FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS FROM SERVING FOOD TO ANY PERSON WHO IS OBESE, BASED ON CRITERIA PRESCRIBED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH; TO DIRECT THE DEPARTMENT TO PREPARE WRITTEN MATERIALS THAT DESCRIBE AND EXPLAIN THE CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING WHETHER A PERSON IS OBESE AND TO PROVIDE THOSE MATERIALS TO THE FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS; TO DIRECT THE DEPARTMENT TO MONITOR THE FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

    • Patrick its easy before the smoking bans we had smoking sections. Then came corporate restaraunts after being threatened to go smokefree by every group out their and some arm twisting from the Federal Government prohibitionists in the Clinton Administration they started to go Smokefree taking a 30% loss in profits to do it!

      Then for the rest like the mom and pops they needed a smoking ban and well a junk science justification to scare the people with and build the bigotry ban wagon for smoking bans. Even then if they knew they wouldn’t get support they created support with Manufactured polls!

      You see with Hundreds of Billions being dumped into the Tobacco Control junk science bug bucks were available everywhere from tax payer dollars to Big Pharma grants and cash.

      If your small town needed a bribe well Uncle Owebama even tossed out Bribes for them to pass em anyway via cash grants for those who would. Oh yes and its Highly Illegal too. But they don’t care………….

      I suppose you could be told like all the smokers to just stay home and breathe smokefree air or to simply go outside and stand in the freezing cold and become a dead smoker statistic from the laws against smoking:

      Yes these are real deaths directly tied to smoking ban legislation and the hatred it has created against the smokers themselves;

      The Smokers’ Graveyard

      In Memory of all the smokers driven to their deaths by smoking bans

      http://thesmokersgraveyard.wordpress.com/

      Heres just one from my hometown in Nashville which has a ban but not in Bars:

      Touching it is simple outright Murder but you might even enjoy it and donate to the murderers legal fund:

      Jerald “Wayne” Mills

      Singer dies after being shot in head at downtown bar

      Posted: Nov 23, 2013 11:01 AM Nov 23, 2013 10:08 PM

      NASHVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) Wayne Mills, lead singer of The Wayne Mills Band, has reportedly died at a Nashville hospital following a Saturday morning shooting. According to CBS station WTVF, the Arab native was shot around 5 a.m. at the Pit and Barrel Bar on Second Avenue.

      WTVF reports the shooting was a result of an altercation between Mills and the owner of the bar, Chris Ferrell. They said the two were inside the bar and a struggle ensued after Mills reportedly lit a cigarette in the non-smoking section. According to police, witnesses outside the bar heard gunshots and contacted authorities.

      Police said Ferrell claims he shot the victim in self-defense. They said he had a valid handgun carry permit.

      Mills was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. According to his official Facebook page, Mills died Saturday afternoon.

      Mills, 44, was a 1987 graduate of Arab High School.

  9. I’ve was wandering around long before any smoking bans, have family in the restaurant business and grew up in a smoking family.
    The claim of loss of business after these laws is pure hog wash, it didn’t last.
    As stated, you want to smoke, fine. Be considerate and don’t bother me with it.
    Smoking is pretty dumb, think about it.
    Buy the land.
    plow and fit it.
    Plant a weed [ it is a weed]
    Cultivate it
    Harvest it
    Dry it
    Transport it
    Sell it
    Add chemicals to it
    Stuff it into a paper tube
    Stuff them into a package
    Tax them
    Transport them
    Wholesale them
    Retail them
    Open the package
    Stick one in your face
    Then set fire to it
    Puff away
    Litter the ground with the butts or better yet throw them over board so the turtles can feed and die from them
    Cough and hack
    Loose lung capacity and endurance
    And I’ll not get into possible medical issues
    But, have I mentioned that I don’t care if anyone smokes. Just don’t bother me with the smoke and its stink

    I don’t ride a Harley anymore, I graduated to a Valkyrie 16 years ago. Not that there is anything wrong with Harleys’s.

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