Parade article on cigar smoking (Sunday newspaper)

[warcollapse]

I caught this article on Sunday with the paper. Normally, I disregard Parade on account it is about as entertaining and factual as Access Hollywood. But that Howard Huge always gives me a laugh so i thumbed through the rag. I was as outraged as the rest of you.... I don't smoke cigars to "look cool" nor do I care what celeb of the week is caught up in a snapshot smoking a stogie I can only dream about smoking. Though I tend to vote democrat, this administrations war against tobacco (and what looks like a seemingly positive attitude towards marijuana) is totally out of hand. That said, I have to agree with everything that's been said so far.


On another note, my local paper ran an half page article on a new cigar club about 30 miles from me with no mentions of PC anti-smoking BS. I guess you win some and you lose some.

[Hermit]

Didn't read it.
I'm not sure if the dog and the cat think I look cool,
but they're the only ones looking.
As far as risk, I don't really care.
I love to smoke!

[MrMusicMan1]

Update: this came out from Corona Cigar today. Sorry for posting the long article but I couldn't find a way to link it.

A recent commentary from Dr. Ranit Mishori in Parade Magazine launched a flurry of email from cigar enthusiast brethren who took issue with Dr. Mishori targeting the health effects of enjoying cigars, specifically. He stated that Hollywood was glorifying cigars in the movies, and hence encouraging adolescent adults to take up cigars. Dr. Mishori goes on to state that enjoying cigars has been linked to every health hazard imaginable, and how cigars are actually worse than other forms of tobacco. Well, here we go again.


As expected, Dr. Mishori provides little detail for his claims, and as we all know, all too often cigars are coupled with every other tobacco product in the public policy arena, when it comes to issues of smoking bans, and often taxation.

Now is the time for the debate to shift with regard to public health, and the enjoyment of a cigar. Frankly, all of us need to do a better job of pointing out the contradictions in the field of statistical analysis, and this is our launch at Cigar Rights of America. We are going to run a series of stories and commentary on where you can find the 'other side of the story,' for those moments when each of us are engaged in a debate on public health, and the use of a perfectly legal product.

A recent study published in the British Medial Journal, conducted by Dr. James Enstrom and Dr. Geoffrey Kabat of the State University of New York at Stony Brook evaluated the results of an American Cancer Society study that actually began in 1960, and spanned to 1998. Over 118,000 California resident adults were in the study, with an emphasis on evaluating 35,561 individuals that had a spouse in the study with known smoking habits. There were follow-up periods for those in the study during 1960-65, 1966-72, 1973-85, and 1973-1998.

The analysis by Drs. Enstrom and Kabat had some interesting [to say the least] results. They point to the statistical claims by the American Heart Association, California Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Surgeon General that 'environmental tobacco smoke' increases risk to coronary heart disease by 30%. The Enstrom/Kabat study notes, "It is unclear how the reported increased risk of coronary heart disease due to environmental tobacco smoke could be so close to the increased risk due to active smoking (also 30%), since the environmental tobacco smoke is much more dilute than actively inhaled smoke."

Hmmmm...interesting with the second, and now 'third hand' smoke debate, isn't it? They further note the flaws in the methodology of these previous reports because the data was not "collected in a standardized way."

The Enstrom/Kabat report focused on the 35,561 individuals that had never smoked, but who had a spouse that smoked. Their conclusions were that "exposure to environmental tobacco smoke was not significantly associated with the death rate for coronary heart disease, lung cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in men or women."

In their conclusion, Drs. Enstrom and Kabat further note that the findings of their report "suggest that the effects of environmental tobacco smoke, particularly for coronary heart disease, are considerably smaller than generally believed."

The full text of this study will be placed on the CRA web site. This is the beginning of a small series of pieces that we will be doing on how those that want to take away your ability to enjoy a great cigar are twisting facts, issuing false claims, and using biased analysis to take away some of the fundamental freedoms that we enjoy.

[MrMusicMan1]

Here is a link to the full article:
http://www.heartland.org/custom/semo.../pdf/23332.pdf

[GJProductions]

Originally Posted by tx_tuff

Damn you mean I don't look cool! What if I wear my pants under my a$$, get a bunch of tattoos, maybe carry a tube of my wives blood around my neck as I ride in my private jet and talk about global warming while I smoke my cigar. Then will I look cool?

Yes, yes you would.... My dumb teenage mind tells me so.

And does anyone find this obvious?
"A Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology study found higher levels of the toxin carbon monoxide at two cigar social events in San Francisco than on a busy California freeway."
This may scare some but it is not cited nor does comparing something to an open air freeway (circulating do to car movement) scare someone with an objective mind. It is obviously to me.

It is my life to live and my cigars to enjoy.
But heck, guess if it stops people from smoking cigars then that means there are more cigars for me!

[tmanqz]

Im doing my own personal study. Since smoking 3 to 5 cigars weekly, I've lost 15 lbs.
Being a stress eater, I attribute the cigars to reducing my stress, thus eating less.
Or, it could be a lack of funds to buy food.
Either way, cigar smoking beats nutri system and cost less. Maybe I could be the next subway guy for Don Pepin.

[apevia]

Wow, I just read the article. How upsetting that is. It's still not going to change my mind though, I will continue to smoke cigars

[ribletman]

Originally Posted by apevia

Wow, I just read the article. How upsetting that is. It's still not going to change my mind though, I will continue to smoke cigars

To become un-upset, read the following article.