Cigars Australia

The ‘McCarthyism’ of the anti-smoking lobby.

I just read this interesting article from 2009 about the anti-smoking lobby. It’s worth a read if you want a different perspective on where all of the anti-smoking hysteria is coming from. The article references the book “Hyping Health Risks: Environmental Hazards in Daily Life and the Science of Epidemiology” by epidemiologist Geoffrey C. Kabat which seems to receive high ratings on Amazon. We already know that evidence isn’t the anti-tobacco camp’s strong suit – just look at how the scientific evidence is that the health risk of smoking cigars is minimal. And yet the Australian government continues to throw cigars into the same category as cigarettes. Perhaps, as this 2009 article suggests, the entire anti-smoking lobby is manipulating data to meet their own ends?

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Permalink Reply by Simon Larsen on February 21, 2012 at 1:37pm

Man you want to see the anti snus campaign. From memory Sweden has the lowest rate of lung cancer in the EU and it is largely because people use snus instead of smoking cigarettes. But because it is (again memory) a class A drug in the rest of the EU and made of tobacco and related to _1_ case of cancer it gets the same treatment as cigarettes.

Realistically if cigarettes cause a drain on the public purse (which I have read studies to show otherwise because smokers die younger and don't need expensive elderly care) then snus should be promoted.

As it is I always work from the principle that if a lobby group solved the problem it was created for they would all lose their jobs and so it makes sense they would either be ineffectual or broaden their scope.

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Permalink Reply by Jyri Ikonen on February 21, 2012 at 9:57pm

I use Snus. I switched to Snus a couple years back and haven't had a cigarette since. I only became aware of it on an e-cig forum, otherwise I might never have known it existed.

Wish it was available in Oz and I'd known about it years ago, but the do-gooders got rid of smokeless back in 1990 or something. So much harm could be minimised if the powers that be would just lift silly rules. Makes no sense.

At least I can import it, which does have it's benefits, but I'd like the convenience of just being able to go to a local servo and pick up a fresh tin.