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Commentary :: Health Care

Anti-Smoke Campaign Covers Up Crimes of Big Cig, Big Oil, etc.

If anyone believes that the corporate-pushed "anti-smoking" crusade is about protecting Public Health, think again. Like any other illegitimate policy, it's camouflaged in "for our protection" wrapping. But, this is arguably the biggest corporate Liability Dodge in history.
Here below are just some links, hopefully "formatted" properly, to info that exposes some persistent whopper lies of omission and commission coming from the "anti-smoking" campaigners in industry, media and government agencies.

One way to identify lies, or gross incompetence, is to merely note if one is talking about TOBACCO...or about INDUSTRIALLY CONTAMINATED Smoking Products. The difference is substantial. So far, no studies of harms of tobacco, without industrial contaminants, has been utilized in legislatures or courts...yet, to protect the cigarette manufacturers, and their many suppliers and partners, only the tobacco has been condemned. Tobacco, remember, is a natural, public-domain, unpatentable, traditionally-used plant. It has been painted as "evil" and worthy of condemnation in order to protect Big Cig for doing so much to contaminate it with products from some of the worst toxics industries on the planet..such as Big Oil, Pesticides, Pharms, Chlorine, Ag-Biz and so forth. To blame...or scapegoat....tobacco protects all the complicit pesticide, fertilizer and additives industries AND, importantly, all their insurers, investors and well-paid government allies.
As the "smoking-ban" comes to Maryland, it is imperative to raise these issues with legislators and media. They are not "protecting workers"; they are evading responsibilities for failing to protect workers, and all consumers, for decades.
This is NOT about the question of "is smoking harmful?". (What does "smoking" mean anyway without clarity about what's IN the smoke?) It's about WHO made the smoking products so harmful, FAR beyond any natural risk levels remotely possible from plain tobacco.
Whether or not one likes smoking, smokers or not...this is about basic law, medicine, the justice system, and a grossly corrupted U.S. "regulatory" system...things that affect everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** April ('03), the General Accounting Office (GAO) condemned lax government monitoring of tobacco pesticides. See: Wash Post > www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32003-2003Apr24.html <
And...Environmental News Service > > ens-news.com/ens/apr2003/2003-04-25-09.asp <


*** Partial list of non-tobacco cig ingredients from which manufacturers select their secret "recipes":
tobaccodocuments.org/profiles/additives/
The Nation mag, in 91, reported about dangerous additives to "lite" cigs but can't get a copy on line...yet.


*** Bill Drake's invaluable site:
ktc.com/~bdrake


*** www.pmdocs.com (Philip Morris had to post this as part of "settlement")


***The Massachusetts Tobacco Ingredients and Nicotine Yield Act is at:
www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/94-307B.htm
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals Decision is at:
www.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl


***The revised "Ninth Report" that contains all addendum materials is available on the Internet from the National Toxicology Program's web page at ntp-server.niehs.nih.gov

***Radiation contaminating tobacco... www.webspawner.com/users/radioactivethreat/


*** www.chem.unep.ch/pops/ The 12 initial POPs include eight pesticides (aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, and toxaphene), two industrial chemicals (PCBs and hexachlorobenzene, which is also a pesticide), and two unwanted by-products of combustion and industrial processes (dioxins and furans). [ But Carbofurans are on lists of tobacco pesticides...so, I don't quite understand this.]


***** From Pesticicide Action Network, re/ 450 still registered tobacco pesticides www.panna.org/resources/documents/tobacco.dv.html :
Tobacco, Farmers and Pesticides: The Other Story
May 1998 By Ellen Hickey and Yenyen Chan


*** RJR's (biased) review of Judge Osteen's rejection of EPA "secondhand smoke" stuff.
www.tobacco.org/resources/documents/osteensummary.html


*** More on EPA/2nd hand smoke; All garbage that avoids all along anything about what's IN "secondhand smoke". Cigs not defined or analyzed...smoke not defined or analyzed. This is SCIENCE??
stic.neu.edu/osteen.htm


**** Re "ETS" Environmental Tobacco Smoke"...except that no one TESTED unadulterated tobacco smoke for ANYTHING. Both sides doing a dance.
www.forces.org/articles/files/appeal.htm


*** And I just re-found this troubling note:
"The best source for information on exemptions is the UNEP website,
irptc.unep.ch/pops/, under "Stockholm Convention on POPs." The
Convention text itself is informative, as is the revised list of requested exemptions. ...." It indicates that "unintentional" dioxins, like in products (like in typical cigarettes?) may not be covered in the POPs Treaty. Does WHO know this?


**** Fantastic scandal...that never heated up: Health insurers links to Big Cig.
www.pnhp.org/news/2000/march/insurers_are_major_i.php


*** Re/ "fire safe" cigs: www.ameriburn.org/advocacy/fireSafeCig.htm

*** The Massachusetts Tobacco Ingredients and Nicotine Yield Act is at:
www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/94-307B.htm
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals Decision is at:
www.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl


*** No "link" to this at CDC but....here it is copied:

Dioxns in Cigarette Smoke

Copy of an abstract from US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Ga.

Authors: H. Muto, Y. Takazawa
Title: Dioxins in Cigarette Smoke
From: Archives of Environmental Health, Pg. 44 (3); 171-4
Date: May/June 1989

Abstract:

Dioxins in cigarettes, smoke, and ash were determined using gas
chromatography/mass spectrometry. The total concentration of
polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) in cigarette smoke was
approximately 5.0 micrograms/m3 at the maximum level, whereas various
cogeners from tetra-octa-chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin ( -CDD) were detected.
Particularly, the total concetration of hepta-CDD cogeners was the
highest among these cogeners. Mass fragmentograms of various PCDD
cogeners were similar to those in flue gas samples collected from a
municipal waste incinerator. The PCDD cogeners that were not present in the cigarettes were found in the smoke samples, the 2, 3, 7,8-TCDD toxic equivalent value---an index for effects on humans---for total PCDDs in smoke was 1.81nng/m3 using the toxic factor of the United States
Environmental Protection Agency. Daily intake of PCDDs by smoking 20
cigarettes was estimated to be approximately 4.3 pg. kg body/weight/day.
This value was close to that of the ADIs; 1-5 pg kg body/weight/day
reported in several countries. A heretofore unrecognized health risk was represented by the presence of PCDDs in cigarette smoke.


*** Methyl Bromide use on tobacco:
www.tobacco.org/articles.php


***US Gov't Accounting Office March 2003 report on lax gov't monitoring of tobacco pesticide residues. GAO fails to note dioxin from the chlorine chemicals, and fails to define what it means by "smoking", but...
www.gao.gov/atext/d03485.txt


*** The whole Muto/Takazawa piece on "Dioxins in Cigarette Smoke". Archives of Environmental Health, Pg. 44 (3) : 171-4 May/Jun89 (Compare to "Health Effects..." just below.)
www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Dioxins-Cigarette-Smoke.htm


*** HEALTH EFFECTS OF DIOXINS ...w/ info re/ U.S. dioxin maximum limits etc. (Compare to Muto/Takazawa discoveries re/ dioxin in cig smoke. Do the easy math. Result: just 20 typical cigs, w/ chlorine, hit unwitting victims with 716 times the US minimum for dioxin exposure!): www.gascape.org/index%20/Health%20effects%20of%20Dioxins.html


***Interesting. "Smokers" job performance better than non-smokers! Journal of Psychology. 2002 May;136(3):339-49 Related Articles, Links
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi t_uids=12206282&dopt=Abstract


***from the National Center on Food and Agricultural Policy, from
1997 use data. (Not all, just major tobacco pesticides); Number, I believe, is pounds used per anum. Will have to double check: www.ncfap.org
1,3-Dichloropropene 13,279,285
ACEPHATE 871,899
ALDICARB 59,719
BENEFIN
BT
CARBARYL 2,057
CARBOFURAN
CHLOROPICRIN 6,761,644
CHLORPYRIFOS 406,822
CLOMAZONE 217,617
DIAZINON
DIMETHOMORPH 36,818
DIPHENAMID
DISULFOTON 13,495
ENDOSULFAN 172,766
ETHEPHON 102,130
ETHOPROP 182,321
FENAMIPHOS 379,841
FLUMETRALIN 352,742
FONOFOS 16
IMIDACLOPRID 67,896
ISOPROPALIN
MALATHION 15,437
MALEIC HYDRAZIDE 1,790,089
MANCOZEB 356,811
MEFENOXAM 139,199
METALAXYL 271,368
METHIDATHION
METHOMYL 29,773
METHYL BROMIDE 685,026
NAPROPAMIDE 92,622
PEBULATE 131,665
PENDIMETHALIN 473,718
SETHOXYDIM 9,579
SPINOSAD 2,815
SULFENTRAZONE 69,073
TRICHLORFON
TOBACCO Total 26,974,241


*** "Liggett Documents Show Pesticide Use For Tobacco," (...such as DDT, endrin, and malathion.) WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 9, 1997, p. B8. (sdb 4/9/97) [can't find computer link, yet.]


**** Title: How cigarette additives are used to mask environmental tobacco smoke.
Dr. Gregory N Connolly, Director, Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program, Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health
tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/9/3/283


Check out these websites for burn accelerants added to cigarettes:
www.burnsurgery.org/Modules/prevention/firesafecigarette/sec1.htm
> www.ash.org.nz/doc/l-doc/0000573.html
> www.harvardhillside.com/Stories/0,1413,108~5342~1420042,00.html
>
> ...and these websites for toxic gases from the burning of synthetic fabrics...which happens when a Burn Accelerated cigarette may fall:
>
> www.avora.com/fr_body_3.html
> www.fibersource.com/f-tutor/health.htm
> irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/cbd/cbd243e.html

Australia finally opened up the Pandora's Box about non-tobacco cigarette adulterants, specifically DDT and other pesticide residues.
www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,7758403,00.html
 
 
 

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