-Communiqué-
Critique of a New Erroneous
and Flawed Study on
“Characteristics of
U.S. waterpipe users”
by Kenneth WARD, Thomas
EISSENBERG, Jennifer N GRAY JN, Vidya
SRINIVAS, Nancy WILSON, Wasim
MAZIAK
published in the
Nicotine and Tobacco
Research Journal
by Kamal Chaouachi (Paris,
15 Dec. 2007)
"Even if you cannot understand every point of an argument or verify the factual claims being made, you can usually recognize when someone is directly challenging their opponents' key points. Similarly, you can recognize when someone seems to be completely ignoring challenges to their position. Almost always, the side that is responding to challenges is telling the truth and knows what they are talking about, while the side that just repeats themselves and talks around the argument is wrong." (Professor C.V.P.: “Who's Telling the Truth ?”)
KEY POINTS:
Ø
Repeated
Scientific Misconduct in Relation with Lung Cancer and Hookah Smoking
Ø
From
Internet Piracy to Self-Plagiarism and Fabrication of Bibliographical Sources
Ø
Biased
Questionnaires and Silly Questions
Ø
“Cigarette
Smoking as a Gateway to Hookah Smoking” is the real problem
Ø
From
““Waterpipe”” Fixation to Fallacies, Fallacism and Religious Obsession
Ø Undeclared Competing Interests
As I have received no echo for a
recent offer aiming at putting an end to the growing world confusion
surrounding hookah smoking, I feel I have no reason to stop publishing
communiqués on pouring erroneous and flawed studies on ““waterpipe”” smoking. I
can see that the authors of the latter have at least begun to realise that the
tobacco-molasses based mixture is not burnt but heated… However, they still use
the functionalist, reductionist and nominalist ““waterpipe”” neo-word. I have
also heard that some of them have discontinued the use of smoking machines. Is
this enough ? Obviously not. Ugly censorship is still prevalent and flaws too
frequent as I will show now with the new paper by Kenneth WARD and his
colleagues of the joint US-Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies
. This document was published
in the “prestigious” and supposedly “peer-reviewed” Nicotine and Tobacco
Research journal [1].
Repeated
Scientific Misconduct in relation with Lung Cancer and Hookah Smoking
The sections on Health are completely biased and now “enriched” with new
bibliographical references the existence of which was revealed to them in my
censored publications (particularly the Tetralogy on Hookah and Health)…
ERROR OR VOLUNTARY LIE: « Waterpipe use likely increases the
risk of bronchogenic carcinoma (Nafae, Misra, Dhar, & Shah, 1973), as well
as lung (Gupta et al., 2001; Rakower & Fatal, 1962), oral (El-Hakim & Uthman, 1999), and bladder (Bedwani et al., 1997;
Roohullah, Nusrat, Hamdani, Burdy, & Khurshid, 2001) cancers.” [1]
Let us recall that the team led by Wasim MAZIAK had already published the same error in a seriously flawed review [2]. This statement has been cited again and again because few researchers in this field think with their brain and most of them just parrot and certainly not read the papers their cite as it happened most recently [3].
The above list of cited references
is so long that I would need an entire book to show how the related statements
are wrong. I will focus on only one: RAKOWER and FATAL’ study. Kenneth WARD and
his colleagues credit the authors of that study with exactly the
opposite of what they reported about narghile and lung cancer [4]. The
two famous scientists actually noted that: “there [was] an
eightfold difference between the lowest lung cancer mortality rate for the
immigrants [Jews] from Yemen [a majority of them being hookah smokers] and the
highest for the immigrants from Europe [50% were smokers and most of them were
cigarette users].” This strange fact led them to analyse the tar
filtering properties of narghile (results: 84mg for 10g of tobacco ; 161mg
without water in the vase). In the
same field, we have just published a study which tends to shed more light on
RAKOWER and FATAL’s findings [5].
Kenneth WARD and his colleagues lure
the reader who is led to believe that the origins of narghile smoking and the
causes behind its growing popularity were actually established by their own
team or their friends. The scheme is based on the vicious circle principle.
They cite their own (or friends’) previous publications: the wrong scenario by
Rastam et al [6]; the erroneous and ludicrous biased and anecdotic
one-page stories by Kandela (“Narghile Smoking Keeps ““Waterpipe”” Researchers
in Wonderland)[7] and the full-of-serious-errors WHO (World Health
Organisation) expert report, the first ever published by this United Nations
agency [6]. In other words, laundering of pseudo-science.
How it works (the “technique”). Just cite in a study of this year
(2007) a past publication (authored by you or your friends) speculating on the
remote origins of the artefact and the causes behind the world hookah
phenomenon. Most people will not remember that such publications were based to
some extent on data collected and pirated on the internet and that the real
source was never cited on purpose by the joint US-Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies
team because of the
world embargo on early writings [8]. Consequently, such scientific
misconduct can also be described as a form of internet piracy.
Biased Questionnaires and Silly
Questions
Below are a few examples of biased
questions [1]. Please note that the capital letters are to be found in
the printed version of the publication:
·
“How do you compare the
HEALTH EFFECTS of smoking tobacco using a waterpipe vs. smoking cigarettes?”
·
”How do you compare the NICOTINE in the smoke
from a waterpipe with the nicotine in the smoke from a cigarette?”
·
“If a cigarette smoker switched from cigarettes to
waterpipe, how much would they reduce their health risks associated with using
tobacco products?”
If the ““waterpipe”” world “top”
“experts” themselves were unable to establish such supposed HEALTH effects [6],
what did they expect from volunteers paid US $ 20 to answer such a biased and
ludicrous question ? The same applies for the one related to switching from
cigarettes to ““waterpipe””. As for
“NICOTINE”, it is also a biased question because it is given as granted that
everybody is capable of “feeling” the effect of nicotine. In the context of
hookah smoking, this is nonsense just as talking of “nicotine dependence” is
completely ludicrous. And we should
call such attitudes and intentions by “experts” , science, “peer-reviewed” science ?
First, the insistence on this theme
leads me to think that there may be tremendous financial interests at stake
behind. In any case, what I do know is that the reverse is true: Cigarette
smoking is an excellent gateway to all forms of smoking: from cigar to hookah.
Therefore, the aim is apparently to find a “scapegoat” for the failure of their
fear-based strategies aiming at curbing cigarette use among youth.
While the vast majority of
“volunteers” of their survey reported being Christian or “other or
nonreligious”, the authors insist by two times on the proportion of Muslim and
Hindu backgrounds. This trend is not new within the Anti-Tobacco movement. So,
the reader is invited to refer to a joint communiqué on a Fallacist statement
by Pascal DIETHELM [9]. Sometimes we may wonder: As if Iraq were not enough, here comes the ““Waterpipe”” Mass Destruction
Weapon from the Middle East…[10]
Because of such an obsession, we can read in the daily
press, as a famous resource on the internet relevantly highlighted: “Health officials hope
that spreading that message among water pipe users in the Arab American
communities will help discourage other users too. That includes members
of the military returning from Iraq, Wenrich said. Some are bringing back
arghiles from the Arabic country and adding to the water pipe's popularity.
"It is culturally related, but becoming more mainstream," she
said.” [11].
For more than a decade now, we have established that the narghile practice is egalitarian from all viewpoints: gender, religion, social, generations [8]. Therefore, their failure is a backlash of censorship and certainly not the last one….
Thomas EISSENBERG, one of the leading collaborators of
this new study, is also author or co-author of a number of papers published in
the same Nicotine and Tobacco Research journal [12-17]. He
describes in them how he has made use of a smoking topography system called
CReSS [Clinical Research Support System]. This had direct orientations and
consequences on his group’s publications on hookah smoking. The truth is that
he has personally contributed to its development, through direct funding, at
least in 2001, from Plowshare Technologies, Inc., an industrial firm. However,
he did not declare these competing interests in any of these publications. According to the his affiliated university, he was
awarded in 2004 "a $2.2 million, five-year grant from the
National Cancer Institute to develop a model for testing the purported benefits
of potential reduced-exposure products for cigarette smokers and smokeless
tobacco users "[17].
The
same source adds that his laboratory “has been developing methods to assess
the effects on smokers of the new products, using a data-collection system
developed and marketed by Plowshare Technologies, Inc., of Baltimore, MD, (www.plowshare.com)”. Thomas
EISSENBERG has in fact worked on the corresponding system sponsored by the
above industrial firm at least in 2001.
Conclusion
No further comment.
Dr Kamal T. Chaouachi
Researcher and Consultant in Tobacco Control (Paris)
http://PublicationsList.org/kamal.chaouachi (kamchaAgmail.com)
______________
References:
[1] Ward KD, Eissenberg
T, Gray JN, Srinivas V, Wilson N, Maziak W. Characteristics of U.S. waterpipe
users: A preliminary report. Nicotine Tob Res. 2007 Dec;9(12):1339-46.
[2] Maziak W, Ward KD,
Afifi Soweid RA, Eissenberg T. Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging
strain in a global epidemic. Tobacco Control 2004; 13: 327-333.
[3] Chaouachi K. Shisha confusion. BDJ 2007 (22 Dec); 203 (12):669-70.
[4] Rakower J, Fatal B. Study of Narghile Smoking in Relation to Cancer of
the Lung. Br J Cancer 1962 (Mar);16:1-6.
[5] Sajid KM, Parveen R, Durr-e-Sabih, Chaouachi K,
Naeem A, Mahmood R, Shamim R. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels in hookah
smokers, cigarette smokers and non-smokers. J Pak Med Assoc 2007;57(12):595-9.
[6] Chaouachi K. A Critique of
the WHO’s TobReg “Advisory Note” entitled: “Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: Health
Effects, Research Needs and Recommended Actions by Regulators”. Journal of
Negative Results in Biomedicine 2006; 5:17.
http://www.jnrbm.com/content/5/1/17
[7] Chaouachi K. eLetter to the Editor: “Measuring
Real Exposure to Narghile (Hookah, Shisha) Smoke and Other Concerns Related to
Public Health”. European Journal of Public Health 2006 (Jul 2). A
critical analysis of Tamim H, Akkary G,
El-Zein A, El-Roueiheb Z, El-Chemaly S. Exposure of pre-school children to
passive cigarette and narghile smoke in Beirut. European Journal of Public
Health 2006 (May 4): 4 pages.
http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/eletters/ckl043v1#18
[8] Chaouachi K. Early censored studies: http://PublicationsList.org/kamal.chaouachi
[9]
Communiqué dated 29 June 2007 (in collaboration with The Sacred Narghile
site): « La rage et l’orgueil contre... le narguilé ». Available via the above the above site. Une critique de l’article de Pascal
Diethelm : « Narguilé : attention, danger!» (May 2007) http://www.oxygeneve.ch/dossier.php?id=67
(accessed June 29, 2007) pour une
campagne préparée par:
OxyRomandie ; CIPRET-Genève ;
UICC ; Département de l'économie et de la santé de Genève et l’Organisation
mondiale de la santé. (*)
[10] Mokdad AH, Warren CW. As if cigarettes
were not enough, here comes narghile. A commentary on an article by Yunis et
al. in IJPH 52/4.
[11]
Wlazelek A. “Caution: Don't go near the water pipe. Health officials voice
concern over misperceptions that smoking a hookah is less dangerous than other
methods”. Los Angeles Times 2007 (18 Nov).
[12]
Breland, A.B., Buchhalter, A.R., Evans, S.E., and Eissenberg, T. (2002)
Evaluating acute effects of potential reduced exposure products for smokers:
clinical laboratory methodology. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 4 (Suppl 2),
S131-S140.
[13]
Buchhalter A.R., Schrinel, L., and Eissenberg, T. (2001) Withdrawal Suppressing
Effects of a Novel Smoking System: Comparison with Own Brand, Not Own Brand,
and Denicotinized Cigarettes. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 3, 111-118.
[14] Buchhalter, A.R. and
Eissenberg, T. (2000). Preliminary evaluation of a
novel smoking system: effects on subjective and physiological measures and on
smoking behavior. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2, 39-43.
[15]
Eissenberg, T., Adams, C., Riggins, E.C.R. III, and Likness, M. (1999). Smoker'
sex and the effects of tobacco cigarettes: subject-rated and physiological
measures. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 1, 317-324.
[16]
Breland, A.B., Kleykamp, B.A., and Eissenberg, T. (2006) Clinical laboratory
evaluation of potential reduced exposure products for smokers. Nicotine &
Tobacco Research, 8, 727-738.
[17] VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) News Centre. VCU reseacher wins
NCI grant for tobacco research 2004 (16 Feb) http://www.news.vcu.edu/news.aspx?v=detail&nid=186 (accessed 4 Nov 2007)
(*) « Pire
encore, de nombreux parents,
en toute innocence, permettent à leurs enfants, parfois de très jeunes
adolescents de 12 ans ou moins, de se réunir
en groupe avec des amis dans le logement familial
pour fumer le narguilé, alors qu'ils n'accepteraient pas que ceux-ci fument des
cigarettes. »
___________
Link to
this communiqué:
http://narghilecommuniques.googlepages.com/Critique_Ward_2007_Waterpipe_US_User.htm