Issue #771 – Property Rights Newsletter, September 12, 2014

September 12, 2014 – Issue #771

“The one thing … that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial. Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it’s likely that no one is thinking at all.”
– Edward Abbey

CVS Ceased To Sell Cigarettes Because Of Intimidation Or Cronyism, Not Public Health.: By Theodore J. King. President Obama and many in the press made it appear that CVS was being altruistic, forsaking between 1.5 and 2 billion dollars in annual revenue from the sale of tobacco products.

The reality is this was a business decision by CVS in order to cash in on the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), which allows insurance companies to charge up to 50 percent more in premiums for smokers and get favorable publicity from much of the media already hostile to tobacco. CVS is more than within its right to sell or not sell a legal product but they should be honest about it.

Junk Science: Leaping From Mouse to Man, Researchers Warn That E-Cigarettes Could Make You Snort Cocaine. By Jacob Sullum. Here is a warning you will never see on a pack of cigarettes: “The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking May Enhance Your Enjoyment of Cocaine.” “This study tells us little about human biology and nothing at all about real-world human behavior,” says Phillips. “It does not even measure mouse behavior.

The study provides no evidence there is a gateway effect, and there is no reason to believe there is one.” CASAA President Julie Woessner calls it “a classic case of someone with a political agenda tacking their opinions onto technical research and trying trick the press into reporting it that way.” Fortunately for the Kandels, the press is easy to trick.

Propaganda – WHO Would Have Expected This: The very same day that the World Health Organization launched its latest attack on electronic cigarettes one of the UK’s best-selling newspapers ran an article making exactly the same claims.

If you were really suspicious you might suspect a major international PR agency was somehow involved. Of course that can’t be true. Then again, Rachael Lloyd isn’t just a random person with a story to tell. She works for BLJ London, an “international strategic advisory consultancy” that specialises in “policy, legislative and market access campaigns”.

The WHO’s jihad against e-cigarettes is focused firmly on changing policy, encouraging legislation and denying market access – just the sort of campaign BLJ discreetly carries out for its high-profile clients. And yes, “discreetly” is their description, not mine.
Reputation Launderers: The London PR firms with their own image problems. London’s public relations industry has got a PR problem.

Top firms such as Bell Pottinger, Brown Lloyd James, Portland and Grayling are coming under intense scrutiny because of their work for foreign governments or in regimes of dubious repute.

The Public Health Mask Slips.: By Dick Puddlecote. During the conversation I expressed my view that the public health movement had morphed from a position of benevolent concern for the public into one where coercion and bullying appeared to be central tactics; that in the past, public health had offered advice and support for those who wished to change their lifestyles, but generally left alone those who were content with taking ubiquitously-known risks.

The occasion sticks in my mind because – to my surprise – the guy nodded and seemed to agree with me!.

Also: E-Cigarette users and public health experts are starkly divided. Public health chiefs have accused e-cigarette users of a campaign of online abuse, saying that junior scientists are being scared away from research by explicit attacks from “vapers” on Twitter.

Indoor Air Quality Standard Modified.: ASHRAE has proposed an alternate compliance path for existing buildings in its indoor air quality standard, in a move that recognizes that the ventilation rate procedure may be difficult to apply in these facilities.

Also open for public comment is proposed addendum c, which would revise the current definition of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) to include emissions from electronic smoking devices and from smoking of cannabis, now allowed by some jurisdictions.

The Food Insecurity Hoax.: Promoting hunger scam is how federal bean counters keep their jobs.

According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, American households suffer far more “food insecurity” than do families in Angola, Mozambique and Pakistan. The USDA uses different standards to gauge domestic and foreign “food security,” but neither measure make senses. Still, that technicality will do nothing to deter politicians and pundits from demagoging the hunger issue.

Food Good For You.?(Comedy)?REGULARLY eating food protects against death, it has emerged. Professor Brubaker believes there is a clear link between eating food and not dying. “Eventually you will die, but that is inevitable.”