Wednesday's Scotland Tonight featured a discussion on the smoking issue. Attacking the ban was, unusually, a university lecturer (rather than a campaigner, professional or otherwise), and defending it was a member of the BMA.
The clip is here – following the interview, after a few moments' silence, the presenter reads a couple of comments that have been emailed to the show.
I could not argue with any of Dr Stuart Waiton's major points: that doctors expect policy to be based on the latest piece of research, the moralistic tone they adopt on health issues, the zero-tolerance obsession about risk ...
As for Dr Gary Hamilton from the BMA: suggesting a discussion between Dr Waiton and the relatives of the 44 people who died of passive-smoke-induced lung cancer in any given year on obsessive attitudes to risk is fairly disingenuous, since he does not know who these people are. He does not know who the people are who allegedly died, because they are the product of a mathematical model, not actual deaths observed empirically. It's not as if he were offering an employer the opportunity to discuss the absurdity of wearing safety helmets with the families of people who had suffered fatal head injuries at work. Reprimanding Dr Waiton for accepting the risk of secondary smoke is far easier than remembering the United Kingdom's appalling record in air pollution generally.
Dr Hamilton comments that we can 'save 33 children from dying a year'. Since there is no direct evidence that secondary smoke causes diseases, even supposing that children are exposed to harm from smoke, there is also no evidence that their deaths occur when they are still children, or even that they occur prematurely.
Unfortunately Dr Hamilton was not asked to explain why protection of children has lagged behind protection of adults, when children are presented as more vulnerable and the environments in which they are exposed to smoke 23 times more lethal. (Or 11 times more lethal. They're making it up as they go.)
Dr Hamilton refused to be drawn on whether the BMA wishes to ban tobacco completely.
The issue goes to the Scottish Parliament next Thursday (24 November) in an oral question (question 12).
4 comments:
On Wednesday 16th November during the Nicky Campbell Show on 5 Live an Oncologist and member of the BMA claimed that moderate smoking can be beneficial in reducing cancer rates by reducing stress. She also said that HPV must be present in the body before smoking causes lung cancer and that smoking does not cause cancer on its own. I now start to understand why many lifelong smokers live t a ripe old age and that others may contract a cancer. What remains a mystery is that Government and the Medical Profession have such a witch hunt on a small minority group, when they continue to ignore the high level of toxins in the air from other sources as has also been highlighted last week.
As A lifelong non-smoker, I value every day as I know that my chances of contracting a cancer remain high as it is in my genes.
Here is a transcript of the above radio interview
http://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/deborah-arnott-aims-to-get-rid-of-smoking/
Note: The now normal junk being cited by Debs Arnott of the Reduction in Heart Attack Admission (including the infamous Pell Study), which has now been ridiculed globally by leading scientists who prefer to uphold the Rand Corporation Study taking 8 years of data and not just a few cherry picked months.
Also note that the Health Professional advocated modern technology, in the form of Air Filtration as the way forward. I have advocated this since becoming involved in the issues in 2004.
Here is the honest opinion of the UK Independence Party
http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/2542-bma-fiddles-facts-on-smoking-claim
An article from The Scotsman
http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/opinion/cartoon/brian_monteith_bma_s_facts_prove_to_be_all_smoke_and_mirrors_1_1976675
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