Hot on the heels of Christopher Snowdon and Michael J. McFadden’s books, the former’s Velvet Glove, Iron Fist and the latter’s Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains, comes Rich White’s Smoke Screens: The Truth About Tobacco. I am awaiting Rich’s book through the post sometime soon.  (if you want a signed copy see details below.)

For the last forty years or so I must have been sleepwalking through the anti smoking crusade because it never really hit me  that I was under fire (I am a proud smoker) from their outrageous slings and arrows until I knew that the UK was bringing in the most divisive and corrosive  of smoking bans in Europe (1st of July 2007.) A ban that has made me, and 12 million of my fellow smokers, lepers in our own country.  It was once the ban came into effect that I began to witness the denormalisation of the smoker; to such an extent that violence was being used against us, even murder. I have to ask myself WHY?

Here is the foreword to the book by Dr Ian Dunbar:

In your book Richard (thank you for sending me a transcript) there are things I need to know; I need to know them so that I can understand WHY?

What has induced this insanity? I need to know for my own sanity.

Author Rich White scrutinises the tobacco related health myth in his new book Smoke Screens, The Truth About Tobacco, which is released next week.

Rich's detailed research retraces the steps of the anti-smoking movement and analyses its often outrageous, and inflated, claims about tobacco.

The book looks at smoking related diseases and what actually causes them and how tobacco was exploited as a cause all because of the massive amount of funding being thrown in by Big Pharma to "prove" how dangerous it was.

What is often now referred to as the evil weed, had humble, medicinal roots, and was used by Native Americans to treat many ailments. Up until 30 years ago, it was recomended by GPs, and Rich's own granny was told to smoke when pregnant on doctor's orders. The accusation that tobacco kills millions, is explored, and how this simple plant became so controversial is explained.

"The sad truth is that because the mantra of smoking being harmful has been repeated so many times people now just accept it without question or research. However, misinformation or a lie told over and over is still wrong; never will mere repetition make something true," he said.

Rich, who gets no funding from any tobacco firm, or tobacco related industry, has shown that the time has come to find out just where the truth does lie. The fanatical whisper that became a roar because of personal prejudices and big money is about to be exposed.

http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.com/2009/12/smoke-screens-out-today.html

Rich White is only a young writer, but he has put together some powerful research for a new book, released today, on the history of tobacco control.

Yes, of course there are lies detailed within. What else would you expect from even a cursory examination of the hysterical lunatics who have fake coughed and exaggeratedly waved their way through the 20th century and beyond, let alone an in-depth piece such as this?

Rich was kind enough to let me have a sneaky peek prior to publication and it certainly pulls no punches. By delving into some of the early indulgences of the tobacco control industry, White comes up with some provocative explanations as to how a herb, which was once viewed as purely medicinal, came to be cynically demonised in the perennial nicotine supply war between big tobacco and big pharma.

There are a few teasers at Rich's site, after which you might like to buy Smoke Screens here.

I can recommend this as a perfect Christmas present for that irritating, obsessive anti-smoking gobshite in your family (we've all got at least one).

http://takingliberties.squarespace.com/taking-liberties/2009/12/2/the-truth-about-tobacco.html

This week sees the launch of another book about smoking. (I know, I know, you wait years for one and then three or four come along at once.)

Smoke Screens: The Truth About Tobacco is the work of Rich White, a graduate of Canterbury Christ Church University. According to the blurb:

"The book explores all aspects of tobacco smoking including smoking trends among social classes and detection bias and its impact on diagnosis.

"It examines in depth the evidence linking smoking to specific diseases, how attitudes towards smoking have changed over time, and how and why tobacco smoking has the negative status it does today."

Actually, that makes it sound a bit dull. Truth is, this book has the word "contentious" written all over it and it is certain to generate strong opinions.

Smoke Screens will appeal to those who are dubious about the alleged risks of smoking and believe - rightly or wrongly - that the benefits outweigh those risks. Whether it will convert anyone who takes a rather different view of tobacco remains to be seen.

http://www.davehitt.com/blog2/smokescreens/

A couple of weeks ago Rich White sent me an electronic copy of his book “Smokescreens, The Truth About Tobacco.”  It’s clear and well written and he provides a good explanation of anti-tobacco research, including not only the science, but the politics behind it.  I especially liked his chapters on second hand smoke.

http://encyclopedia.smokersclub.com/262.html

Rich White has charted himself a difficult road to walk in Smoke Screens: The Truth About Tobacco, but he walks it well and if you join him you'll learn some things along the path.

Most of those who have fought the 800 million dollar a year "Tobacco Control Lobby" in recent years have done so on the basis of their wildly spurious claims about the "deadly risks" of wisps of secondary smoke in the air. It's a relatively easy fight to win if you can find an audience with minds open enough to listen because the lies are so easily exposed and the nonsense so easily swept aside. The only thing keeping the smoke-banners ahead of the game is the enormous money-pot they can dip into and the non-existent financial resources of their opposition. Those opposing smoking bans are "forbidden" to even touch support from Big Tobacco or face the risk that their arguments will be simply dismissed without a hearing. Unfortunately, without that support they never even get to grab the microphone and so the only ones generally heard from are the ban supporters. Meanwhile Big T. itself is so terrified of lawsuits in a highly charged negative environment that they're usually afraid to voice the mildest squeak of protest against even the wildest medical accusations.

In Smoke Screens Rich White has taken up the challenge of fighting the Antismokers at their strongest point: their claims of the harm of smoking to smokers themselves. His dedication and hard work in gathering and organizing evidence has paid off and while he may not convince the majority of readers he'll certainly give them at least some pause to think about what they've basically been hearing since they've been in the cradle: the cute little sound bite, "You Smoke: You Die." may be true, but Rich reminds us that "You Don't Smoke: You Die." is also true and not quite as different as we may have thought. Medicine has gotten caught up in witch hunts and beliefs in its omniscience in the past and Rich puts forth the argument that its crusade against smoking will eventually be shown to be largely built of the same material that predicted millions of deaths from Mad Cow Disease and warned us of the deadliness of butter.

He writes clearly and in an engaging style, presenting facts to support his arguments and presenting those arguments in a straightforward way while avoiding the tedium of simply citing reams of numbers and blocks of repetitive references. He makes an argument that's very hard to make and unfortunately most readers will find that even in the face of his most convincing presentations their background "common sense knowledge" will make it difficult to accept his conclusions. Still, it's an argument that *does* need to be made and even those with the most rock-solid belief in the concept that "Smoking Equals Death" should walk away after his book with at least a little doubt in their minds: things are not always what we think they are.

Michael J. McFadden
Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"