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• Hate mail etc.
  Jonathan H Bagley
  Published on: 13 May 2016
• Sheer hypocrisy
  David C Atherton
  Published on: 13 May 2016
• Re: Hate mail, tobacco control and social change
  Stephen L Hamann
  Published on: 13 May 2016

• Published on: 13 May 2016

  Hate mail etc.

  • Jonathan H Bagley, Lecturer in Mathematics

  NOT PEER REVIEWED Please can I make a few points in response.

  First, in the UK at least, the individual commenters and blog writers who criticise the anti tobacco movement do not, in general, receive money or favours from, or have any connection with the Tobacco Industry. FOREST does receive money from the tobacco industry and doesn't hide the fact. The anti tobacco movement receives money and favours (sponsored...

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  NOT PEER REVIEWED Please can I make a few points in response.

  First, in the UK at least, the individual commenters and blog writers who criticise the anti tobacco movement do not, in general, receive money or favours from, or have any connection with the Tobacco Industry. FOREST does receive money from the tobacco industry and doesn't hide the fact. The anti tobacco movement receives money and favours (sponsored conferences, for example), from the drug companies which benefit from smoking bans, by increased sales of their alternative nicotine delivery systems.

  Second, your have distorted the facts regarding smoking bans. The English smoking ban covers all non-residential buildings - public and private - and secure mental hospitals. It was ostensibly brought in to protect employees: not to prevent customers "smelling like an ashtray". That may be their choice. The English ban covers private clubs staffed by volunteers. This clearly goes beyond protecting workers, or even keeping the clothes of the public sweet-smelling. That the ban covers secure mental hospitals, which are the homes of the most vulnerable members of society is a national disgrace.

  Third, The evidence that second hand smoke causes significant harm is controversial. Members of the anti tobacco movement have admitted as much - that any kind of statistical fraud is justified. Those on the more scholarly wing of the movement, such as Sir Richard Peto and the late Sir Richard Doll, have publicly stated that any harm is small or negligible and impossible to measure.

  Finally, you receive hate mail because many people perceive you as having ruined their lives. They no longer go out and meet other people. They no longer go for a relaxing drink after work. And, to rub it in, their taxes are used to support anti tobacco groups; and they fund one tenth of the NHS, 10 billion pounds, through tax applied to tobacco.

  You and your readers may be interested in the article linked to below, which also criticises your lack of support for snus, an oral tobacco product which is responsible for Sweden having both the lowest male smoking prevalence and the lowest male lung cancer incidence in the developed world.

  http://smokles.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/bmj-tobacco-control-plays-the -victim/

  Conflict of Interest:

  None declared

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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• Published on: 13 May 2016

  Sheer hypocrisy

  • David C Atherton, Salesman

  NOT PEER REVIEWED

  Tobacco control has instigated a level of prejudice against an identifiable group of people that if we were a minority or gay would be quite rightly simply unacceptable. We have to put up with outrageous language too and have a database where we keep the best examples.

  "Smoke in your own home. Get cancer. Die. Just keep it away from me, that's all I ask.

  "..let's have free l...

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  NOT PEER REVIEWED

  Tobacco control has instigated a level of prejudice against an identifiable group of people that if we were a minority or gay would be quite rightly simply unacceptable. We have to put up with outrageous language too and have a database where we keep the best examples.

  "Smoke in your own home. Get cancer. Die. Just keep it away from me, that's all I ask.

  "..let's have free loaded pistols for use by these smokers there too so that they can end their pathetic lives in a dignified way and save us and our already burdened health systems a lot of problems."

  We save them for posterity. In the 3rd link below is a UK government survey of trends on happiness and I can only concur.

  "We use three waves of the British Household Panel Survey to examine whether changes in smoking behaviour are correlated with life satisfaction and whether the recent ban on smoking in public places in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has affected this relationship. We find that smokers who reduced their daily consumption of cigarettes after the ban report significantly lower levels of life satisfaction compared to those who did not change their smoking habits, with heavy smokers particularly affected. No such finding is reported for previous years."

  I feel sorry mostly for the old people who smoke. They lived through wars, only to have their freedom to smoke in a bar taken away from them. Loneliness is a killer.

  Perhaps what really sticks in my throat is that the anti tobacco movement is based on the entirely false premise that second hand smoke is harmful. To pervert a true science for funding, personal prejudice and power just makes me very angry. You have no idea how I resent not being able to smoke inside anymore. You have no idea how you have compromised my life. Tobacco control has also set an awful president for state control of private property which I believe is an appalling situation to have.

  http://blogs.bmj.com/tc/2010/12/20/tobacco-control-rhetoric-poll- winner-announced/

  http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.com/2010/08/cataloguing-psychosis.html

  http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.com/2011/01/official-uk-smoking-bans- ruin-lives.html

  Conflict of Interest:

  None declared

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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• Published on: 13 May 2016

  Re: Hate mail, tobacco control and social change

  • Stephen L Hamann, Consultant

  NOT PEER REVIEWED Perhaps inflaming social confrontation has become so common that people no longer care what they say to each other any longer. Many feel it is all temporary posturing in order to stake out a claim in the impersonal electronic landscape. It is a reflection of unbridled identity rather than thought. In the electronic communications environment, opinionated commentators have started to believe they are...

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  NOT PEER REVIEWED Perhaps inflaming social confrontation has become so common that people no longer care what they say to each other any longer. Many feel it is all temporary posturing in order to stake out a claim in the impersonal electronic landscape. It is a reflection of unbridled identity rather than thought. In the electronic communications environment, opinionated commentators have started to believe they are speaking truths to the uninitiated. Thus, social change is not difficult; it is just continuing to live out perceptions of self. It takes only being, not commitment, courage or camaraderie.

  In contrast, there are those who take hatred personally. Given that the tobacco industry has proven itself untruthful, unethical and criminal, one would hope that some would want to do their personal utmost to rid the earth of the corrupting influence of tobacco and those who represent it. As reflected in the recent financial prognosis by Citigroup (See News Analysis, March 2011), I see it is a social change that even economists don't feel improbable. I urge countering hatred with mindful action. Even now, the cacophony of controversy subsides.

  Conflict of Interest:

  None declared

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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