Three Professors Of Medicine Attack Ash Health Claims

Aug. 21, 2009 - PRLog -- By Jean Rasbridge from E-Cigarette Direct

On its website, Action on Smoking and Health claims:

1. That brief exposure to small amounts of drifting tobacco smoke can cause a heart attack.
2. That E Cigarettes cause problems for both smokers and non-smokers.
3. That third-hand smoke can cause serious risks for both smokers and non-smokers.
4. That smoker's breath can be hazardous to non-smokers health.

The claims can be seen on the ASH website.

These or similar claims have been used:

   * to separate children from parents
   * to suggest an apartheid-like system of denying smokers access to public areas
   * to bar smokers from using hospital waiting rooms
   * to prevent parents from seeing their children even when parents smoke outside
   * to force companies, under threat of litigation, to move workers from offices they share with non-smokers
   * to support a ban on the electronic cigarette, an alternative to a product which kills 4.8 million smokers a year world wide

ASH maintains that all their claims have a scientific basis.

But where is this so called scientific data ASH claims to have? For example, recently ASH claimed that the CDC reported that 30 minutes of exposure of tobacco smoke triggers fatal heart attacks. Yet there is absolutely no link to anything the CDC said officially that substantiates that outlandish claim. None whatsoever. Yet, ASH is using the Centers for Disease Control as a source for a health alert, one the CDC never made.

Proclimations like this this is dangerous, because the results will confuse the public and cloud any sort of scientific truth.

The other dangerous aspect is they advocate not allowing smoking parents visitation rights even if they smoking outside. In addition, they encourage bringing up the subject of smoking in court during custody battles.

Bear in mind, you have to pay to find out this information.

Another outlandish claim was that a smokers breath can also be harmful to a non smokers health. Again, there is scientific evidence to back up that claim.

In an interview, E Cigarette Direct asked three Professors of Medicine to examine these claims.

Professor Brad Rodu, a Professor of Medicine at the University of Louiseville who holds an endowed chair in Tobacco Harm Reduction Research, dismissed the claims, stating that:

"Quite simply, these statements are either gross exaggeration or pure fiction."

Arguing that "third-hand smoke" had no scientific credibility, he suggested that:

"Extending Banzhaf’s logic, non-garlic eaters may be able to absorb the possible health benefits of garlic by moving into the vicinity of garlic aficionados."

Professor Michael Siegel, Professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, Boston University School of Public Health, also criticised the health claims, in particular arguing that:

"There is no existing evidence that e-cigarettes pose a risk for non-smokers."

In addition to criticising the claims Professor Carl Phillips, Associate Professor at the University of Alberta School of Public Health, argued that ASH's claims represented an example of political actors twisting science for their own gain. This, he suggested, caused damage above and beyond the issue of smoking:

"...simply finding some reason to propose a particular hypothesis ... and then declaring it to be true without evidence is not just unethical - it also damages the public's ability to make sense of science."

The scientists full comments can be read here: Scientists Analyse ASH Health Clams.

When asked to comment, Matt Salmon, President of the Electronic Cigarette Association (ECA), stated:

“The ECA believes that adult smokers should have the choice of an appropriate alternative to traditional cigarettes, and urge those with a different political or financial motivation to respect the freedom of those who select e-cigarettes.

“Members of the ECA do not, and will not market to minors or make false claims about their product. That is a requirement of being recognized by the ECA, and those that are members are the leading companies that have the best interest of the committed smoker at heart. The ECA has even gone a step further, sending a letter to every U.S. House member and U.S. Senator urges legislation that makes it illegal to sell electronic cigarettes to anyone under the legal smoking age.”