Who and what is science? Who can you trust?

Most of you who lived through the tobacco cancer linked investigations and pay outs of the 1990s, would react with shock if you were told to trust R. J. Reynolds "science" about lung disease and smoking today. And that's about how unbiased today's scientists are who are taking money from the federal government (NIH) to investigate the novel virus currently causing the lockdowns and mask orders. Even if the NIH funded scientists are not publishing in that field, they will be shut out of research on immune system, or ivermectin or HCQ as a tool in fighting a global pandemic. If they appear as expert witnesses on a cable show or podcast, they risk their careers and funding if their conclusions don't support Big Pharma, CDC and WHO. The host who books them or interviews them, risks being deplatformed or their monetization contract. 

Trust the "science?" No, follow the money.

Quitting smoking unassisted

It’s nice when medical opinion catches up with mine.  For years I have questioned the use of public funding for smoking cessation—for Medicaid and Medicare patients, for prisoners and various minority populations and those  in the bottom quintile. It seemed a sop to the pharmaceutical companies, social workers and various cessation gurus.  With no great research on my part I noticed that although I know many former smokers—perhaps a hundred or so—not one of them quit using a drug or group support or counseling method.  The two closest were my father, who quit at 39 when he began spitting up blood from his coughing and lived to 89, and my father-in-law who quit when he reached for his third pack of the day and lived to be 93. Both quit cold turkey. Two of my father’s brothers, Russell and John, and one of his sisters, Gladys, did not quit, developed cancer and died painful deaths.  My father-in-law’s wife, Rosie, died many years before her husband; she didn’t stop smoking and developed lung cancer. I couldn’t begin to count the people my age that I know who are former smokers, including brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. I know one man who used God—he says he challenged God, if he were real, to take away his desire to smoke. Poof, it was gone, and he stopped. He became a believer—in God. I know a few who became desperately ill, heart disease, COPD, stroke or cancer, and then stopped—and you can call it fear, but it was sheer will power. Their lives, although extended, were shorted by the years of foolishness and addiction.

A 2013 Gallup Poll of former smokers showed only 8% attributed their success to nicotine replacement therapy—gum, NRT patches—or prescription drugs.  56% credited “cold turkey,” “will power,” or “mind over matter.”  In other words, they decided to kick the filthy, health killing habit.  As a non-smoker, I am thrilled I can go into a restaurant or public event, and not leave smelling like a gambling casino of the 1950s.  However, there was a dramatic drop in smoking among Americans after the 1950  report linking tobacco and cancer, from 7.7 million former smokers in 1955 to  19.2 million in 1964, to 36.2 million in 1979. This was before the anti-smoking campaigns, the laws, and the drugs. Researchers could clearly see and puzzle over the success rate of these people, but chose to go the “assisted” route to find the perfect drug or program.

In my opinion, except for those unfortunate enough to have been mainlined nicotine in the womb, the vast majority of smokers pick up the habit through choice and social influence.  And that’s the way to quit.  Just do it, and don’t hang around with smokers.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1812969

What you can do to make sure your kids don't smoke

This is the heading of a 2 page ad in a women's magazine--sponsored by Lorillard Tobacco Company! Hmmm. Not sure that's the best source. Anyway, this tobacco company which is dedicated to getting your kids hooked into a life time habit that costs about $4,000 a year, says these things will keep them from smoking: 1) Reinforce the immediate consequences, 2) instill strong values and beliefs. Ha, ha, ha. That's rich.

What 13 year old have you met who could weigh the risks of bladder and lung cancer against being included with the kids he admires? Peers win every time.

I'm guessing this advertisement is included as part of a law suit.

$230 million of tobacco settlement diverted

The 10th district Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that Ohio could spend the tobacco prevention money (American Legacy Foundation via The Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation) on an expansion of health care for children. This is part of the lucrative settlement from the 1998 tobacco companies settlement. Between the 1998 Tobacco Settlement and tobacco taxes, Ohio will receive $1.8 billion, but only $7.4 million goes for prevention. Less than the CDC recommends. In my opinion, they might as roll the dollars and smoke them. Tobacco use is up, and I doubt there's hard evidence that educational programs on tobacco prevents smoking or chewing in children; it only educates them about tobacco and its harmful effects. I've been in education all my life, but education does not mean wisdom, or action, or prevention, or right choices. It's just. . . education . . . and the person makes the choices. I don't know a single smoker who doesn't know the facts, dangers, and pitfalls. They know they stink, have yellow fingers and wrinkles, but the pleasure outweighs the negatives and they keep kicking the stop date down the road. Most obese people have more knowledge than some dieticians--they just don't use it. People who talk or text while driving have probably heard dozens of times how dangerous it is--but they don't act on what they know, even if they've seen the accidents or attended the funerals.

Health librarians were salivating when they first got a whiff of this tobacco money back in the 90s. I remember sitting in the meetings wondering what would happen to programming and staff when, 1) the settlement money ran out, or 2) if education were successful and people really did stop smoking, what would happen to the tobacco tax supported programs?

Well, I think adults do smoke less--usually because of a health scare, or the health of a family member, like a child with asthma. But it takes a lot. The other day a woman I know went outside the coffee shop to smoke and slipped on the ice jamming her cigarette into her face. Will she stop smoking? No. Does she not know the dangers? Yes. She'll just be more careful about icy parking lots next time.

10 million documents on tobacco

50,000,000+ pages. Give or take a few. Hurry before California melts down and look at its Legacy Tobacco Documents Library. I was a librarian, I've seen it all, but this is awesome.

I found it through Library 2.0, LibGuides of Babson College Horn Library, which has 248 guides, and the ones I looked at (about 6 or so) were all current within the month. The geology librarian at OSU had heard about LibGuides which has almost 18,000 guides at the CIC geoscience Librarians meeting.

Today I was following a pick-up truck with some construction materials in the bed. It had a bumper sticker that read, "Librarian, the original search engine." Must have bought it used, because he didn't look like any librarians I know.