This piece originally appeared on June 20, 2007 on HuffingtonPost.com:
The Vatican's "Ten Commandments" for drivers is pretty unusual. And while it will no doubt be fodder for late-night TV, it has some good messages about road rage and being careful. The commandments, predictably enough, also warn that a car can be an "occasion of sin," and I don't think they are referring to rolling through stop signs. But for the most part, the directive is meant to encourage safer driving. For instance, drinking and driving is a no-no. And road rage is sinful. This is good. Perhaps even progressive.
Harm Reduction
A Lancet article by Carol E. Gartner et al published online on May 10, 2007 cited the ACSH study "Tobacco Harm Reduction," which in turn appeared in Harm Reduction Journal (2006;3:37) and was the basis of ACSH's booklet on smokeless tobacco as harm reduction. The Lancet article concludes:
Many smokers are unable to quit smoking through complete nicotine and tobacco abstinence, and conventional quit-smoking programs generally present smokers with two unpleasant alternatives: quit or die.
New York, NY -- May 1, 2007. The public health establishment has misled smokers about the benefits and risks of using smokeless tobacco as a method of quitting cigarettes. That's one conclusion of a new pamphlet, What's the Story? Smokeless Tobacco as Harm Reduction for Smokers, created by physicians and scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).
A March 13, 2007 piece, explaining why tobacco stocks appear to be benefiting from impending FDA regulation of cigarettes, quotes ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross on the status quo-enhancing tendencies of regulation, especially the sort that limits new advertising:
Let's explain what's going on here. First, the Kennedy bill (co-sponsored by Texas Republican John Cornyn) specifically prohibits the FDA from banning tobacco products, so some in the industry feel this gives the Marlboro Man and the Camel brand a new lease on life.
No scientists are immune from accusations that they are too close to industry these days, not even recently-deceased ACSH Advisor Sir Richard Doll, despite his pioneering work demonstrating the terrible cancer toll of cigarettes. Luckily, other eminent scientists sprang to his defense in letters to the London Times printed December 9, 2006:
From Professor Colin Blakemore et al
A November 22, 2006 piece by S. Fred Singer in the Financial Post notes the author's ACSH Advisor status and his impatience with the misuse of science, even in a good cause:
I hate tobacco smoke and sit on the board of the anti-smoking American Council on Science and Health. But I don't tolerate the misuse of science, even by anti-smokers. So I gladly assented when, more than a decade ago, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute asked me to serve as a consultant for a couple of months to review and contribute to a report on misuse of science in environmental policies.
A November 1, 2006 piece by Anita Srikameswaran notes ACSH's position on the potential use of smokeless tobacco as a harm reduction method:
According to the American Council on Science and Health, encouraging cigarette smokers to switch to chew, particularly products that contain low levels of cancer-causing nitrosamines, could substantially reduce health costs and the incidence of both lung and heart disease.
An article on flu in the November issue of Fitness quoted ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross on one highly useful flu-fighting step:
DON'T SMOKE. "People who light up are much more susceptible to the flu," explains Gilbert Ross, M.D., executive and medical director of the American Council on Science and Health in New York City. That's because smoking impedes the body's ability to fight off infection.
This report provides a description of traditional and modern smokeless tobacco products. It reviews the epidemiologic evidence for low health risks associated with smokeless use, both in absolute terms and in comparison to the much higher risks of smoking. The report also describes evidence that smokeless tobacco has served as an effective substitute for cigarettes among Swedish men, who consequently have among the lowest smoking-related mortality rates in the developed world.
New York, NY -- October, 2006. Smokeless tobacco use is a much-ignored means of reducing the overwhelming health risks of smoking. In a new publication, Helping Smokers Quit: A Role for Smokeless Tobacco?, physicians and scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) point out that the public health establishment has misled smokers about the benefits and risks of substituting smokeless tobacco for cigarettes.
A September 26, 2006 article by Lauren Foster notes that judges have ruled claims that "light" cigarettes are healthier to be false but that the idea of using smokeless tobacco as a safer alternative for those who can't quit nicotine is catching on, citing researcher Brad Rodu and ACSH's Jeff Stier:
Mr. Rodu and others point to Sweden, where snus is more widely used by men than cigarettes and where men have the lowest rate of lung cancer in Europe. One study showed that the smoking rate among Swedish men fell from 19% in 1996 to 9% in 2004. By contrast, women are much less likely to use snus and their rate of tobacco-related deaths is similar to that in other European countries.