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PAGING DR. HUGO Z. HACKENBUSH! |
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 U.S. Centers for Disease Control study contradicts earlier findings on obesity; what about secondhand smoke?
Los Angeles, April 21 – In a stunning reversal of “science,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new study on obesity in America which shows the death rate at just 6.5% of its original pronouncement last year.
A lengthy dispatch from the Associated Press reported that the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics determined that obesity can be credited with causing 25,814 deaths annually in the U.S., compared with an estimate of 400,000 issued last year by the CDC’s Division of Adult and Community Health. The new study was published in yesterday’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The new study was cited as more thorough and more sophisticated than last year’s report, which caused considerable hysteria in the national news media as well as criticism from many quarters. The original estimate of 400,000 was then reduced to 365,000 three months ago, but now the credibility of both reports is close to zero.
In fact, the AP reported that the new study “found that people who are modestly overweight actually have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight.”
Based on the new figures, obesity would drop from no. 2 on the CDC’s list of preventable causes of death to no. 7, behind tobacco, alcohol, germs, toxins and pollutants, car crashes and guns.
Despite the dramatic change, the CDC is not about to change its campaign against obesity. “There’s absolutely no question that obesity is a major public health concern of this country,” insisted CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding.
And that’s the rub.
Like Dr. Hackenbush – a quack veterinarian played by Groucho Marx in MGM’s 1937 classic “A Day at the Races” – the CDC may not know what it is doing, but that’s no matter . . . it’s going right ahead anyway.
More and more articles are pointing out the Swiss Cheese-sized holes in the anti-smoking campaign against secondhand smoke. A biting editorial ran last month in newspapers in the Scripps-Howard chain from Michael Fumento, one of the syndicate’s columnists, entitled “Passive-smoking cult fears the facts.”
Of note was this section, which states the issue beautifully:
“‘Passive smoking’ is not a scientific term but a propaganda one. A 1975 New England Journal of Medicine study found that even back then, when having smoke obnoxiously puffed into your face was common in restaurants and bars, the concentration was equal to but 4/1000s of a cigarette per hour.
“And while obviously you can inhale smoke from others’ cigarettes, we also know ‘the dose makes the poison.’ Thus we are constantly bombarded by such human carcinogens as ultraviolet radiation and estrogens but in such small amounts the body’s defenses ward them off. We weren’t built to defend against several cigarette packs daily.
“None of which matters to the activists, to whom any means justifies the end. Having made all the process they can with ‘Your smoking will kill you,’ they changed tack to ‘You smoking will kill others.’ Or at least give them herpes.
“Former Surgeon General David Satcher essentially admitted as much when he said a ban on workplace smoking would ‘be effective in creating a new social norm that discourages people from smoking.’”
Swedish Match reports sales of cigars up again:
First-quarter results for tobacco giant Swedish Match – the world’s second-largest marketer of cigars – were flat overall, but showed a nice increase of seven percent in sales of cigars.
According to the company’s first-quarter summary, sales in local currency (i.e., in U.S. dollars rather than converted to Swedish Kronor) increased by a remarkable 12% with a noted expansion in the sales of flavored cigars. Swedish Match’s top flavored brands are the machine-made White Owl and Garcia y Vega lines and the Tiparillo and Tijuana Smalls small cigar brands.
The report also noted that Swedish Match “has agreed in principle to acquire all outstanding shares of General Cigar currently owned by the Cullman family” and will own all of the company. Also, “The transaction is expected to be consummated during the month of April. The business will be administratively integrated with the North America Division.”
Costs of “integration” were projected at 50-75 million SEK, or about U.S. $7.1-10.7 million and will show on the second quarter results.
One sour note for pipe fans: “Pipe tobacco consumption [showed] declines on most established markets, as the segment attracts relatively few new consumers.”
~ Rich Perelman
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