This is in the Daily Fright. Uh… what? How is that guy’s name pronounced? I’ve been reading it as ‘Dr. Whatthefuck’.which seems appropriate.
It’s not news. I’ve been using that trick for years, initially for fun but lately in deadly earnest. I no longer let the victim off with ‘It’s okay, I was just winding you up’. Now I wind them up and watch them go.
The recent one was a fake-cough from a slip of a girl when I came back inside after adding 0.9g of burned leaf to the causes of pollution, disease, global warming and child death. It’s a slow way to destroy the planet but bit by bit, I’m getting there.
She didn’t see my Loki-like grin at her cough but one of the others did and he had serious trouble keeping a straight face. I’ve been there over six months so some are clued-in to what I’m like. Others still think ‘janitor – huh, probably doesn’t have two O levels to rub together’. Those are the most fun.
“That’s a nasty cough,” I said. “You should take up smoking.” I doubt I need to describe the look on her face.
“Don’t be stupid. Smoking doesn’t cure coughs.”
“No. But at least you’d have a reason for it.”
This elicited the expected ‘Humph’ response. So far, so standard format.
“Of course,” [casual tone adopted while pouring a hot chocolate, the least offensive drink in the machine, and directing remarks at nobody in particular] “if you have a cough and don’t smoke, that usually means a disease of some kind.”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“I won’t. Did you read about the rise in tuberculosis cases? Oh, and did you notice that very few of the cases were smokers? Smoker lungs are lined with tar, you see, so bacteria can’t get in.”
Hesitation. Brief flash of confusion. Gotcha.
“Huh?”
“Oh yes, smokers are immune to most infections because of all the gunk in our lungs. Infections can’t get through.” [taking a seat and picking up a newspaper – doesn’t matter which one, I’m not really reading it – also ignoring the snort from the guy who knows what I’m up to].
[sneer] “Yes, but you’ll die of cancer.”
“I’m 53 and not in any way ill. Most smokers never get cancer, you know. Oh, a few more get lung cancer than non-smokers, but not many. Besides, it’s a small risk to take when compared with the black lining that protects us from so many other infections. Have you had that cough checked out?”
“No, I -” She coughed again. It wasn’t a fake one this time, it was a psychosomatic one. Or it could have been because I had hooked a lot of dust out from under shelves earlier so the air in Local Shop was full of it. Doesn’t matter which, she coughed at the right moment. Good enough.
“Sounds bad. You should see a doctor.” [I’m a doctor, but not the one she should see]. “If you have a cough and any tightness in your chest you really should get it checked” [no eye contact, keep turning newspaper pages]. “It might be catching, but smokers won’t catch it.”
“You’re just being stupid. There’s nothing wrong with me.” [Hint of hysteria creeping in, this one is a textbook case].
“Well it doesn’t cost anything to get it checked out. Especially if you have any trouble getting deep breaths” [Already there was no way she could take a deep breath, she was seconds from hyperventilating]. “I mean, the tuberculosis outbreak is certainly real. It’s all over the news. Anyone can catch that. Well, anyone who doesn’t smoke.” [Look up, eye contact time and try not to smirk at the panic in them] “Tuberculosis is a lot faster way to die than smoking.”
She left just as I was getting warmed up. Sometimes it’s just too easy. I have yet to hear whether she saw a doctor, she certainly isn’t out in the smoking patch with the rest of us so she hasn’t taken the easy option.
It’s all set to get easier too.
Quick fact – I just weighed one of my home-made fags and it’s 1.0 grams. The little scale I have here only has one decimal place, I could be more accurate if I went to the lab but one gram is close enough.
An empty tube with filter (Gizeh silver tip) is 0.1g. So my home-mades contain 0.9g of leaves. We’ll ignore that and call it 1 g of burning baccy because it’s past 2 am and we need (I need) to keep the sums easy, especially as I have been imbibing.
Tipped by email is this gem of idioscience from a student who has a great future as an ASH propagandist but no future at all as a real scientist.
He bleats on the 3000 deadly things in every cigarette and adds one million bacteria to the mix. The deadly things first.
Assuming my cigarette is entirely made of deadly things and contains no actual tobacco at all, every deadly thing is present at 1/3000 th of a gram. They would have to be especially deadly to pose any risk at all, wouldn’t they? Since the cigarette actually does contain tobacco and since a minimum of 50% of that is cellulose (not deadly) then the deadly things are present at 1/6000th of a gram, only half as dangerous as the not-dangerous level they were at before. We will ignore the water content, which alone would destroy this idiot student’s chances of a degree if academia had any sense left in it.
Ah, but there are also one million bacteria in each cigarette (it sounds a lot but a total count of one million per gram in any natural source is at a level we microbiologists describe as ‘not significantly different from fuck all’). Bacteria don’t weigh much. Let’s ignore their weight because it does not matter. Not in the slightest. If those teaching this student were any use at all, the first practical lesson in the first year of his course would have taught him how to flame a loop for transferring bacterial colonies. We use nichrome wire loops and heat them in an open flame, then let them cool. Why?
No bacteria or viruses can survive an open flame. Not even a prion. It does not matter if your cigarette is dunked in a suspension of Salmonella and then dried before you light it, you won’t get Salmonella from it unless it was just the filter that was dipped. They all die when the burny bit reaches them and they can’t get out of the way. Just as that heated wire is sterile, the ash dropping off the end of your fag is sterile. Absolutely safe. At that point it is burnt leaf ash and nothing more. Oh, and the ash also counts towards the weight which means you do not inhale anything like the whole one gram. I haven’t weighed it yet but I suspect we are really talking about 3000 chemicals in less than 0.1g.
However.
The drones will believe that bacteria live in smoke and that they will now catch all kinds of horrible infections from a sterile source. Does anyone imagine I have any plans to disabuse them of this notion? Hell no. I have already come up with a plausible reason why they will die and we won’t (our lungs are bacteria-proofed with a tar lining) and I am definitely going to push this as far as it can go, and on recent experience it can go a hell of a long way.
I think Legionnaire’s disease and possibly cholera should get a look in here.
Hmmm… leprosy. That starts as tingling in the extremities and it’s never hard to induce that.
Daily Mail scare stories? Pffft. Amateurs.
underdogs bite upwards 
Too late! I already, on highlighting the symptoms of non-smoking psychosomatic coughers adjacent to our smoking area, diagnosed primary cases of Hansens Disease (it’s even easier when they haven’t heard of it – and the panic when you use the common term – priceless. And yes, two of them actually attended Occupational Health). I used to ‘do’ Parkinsons (lots of data to quote on smokings preventative effects, so swapping it round was easy) I was thinking MS myself next, what do you think?
I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks for your development and mentorship of my new, and favourite, hobby.
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Given They’ve implied my MS (current diagnosis although it could be something else next week) is exacerbated by smoking (deaf ones that fell on, since they couldn’t tell the truth to God), I’d go for something more florid and shameful – necrolysing fasciitis sounds like a barrel of laughs doesn’t it?
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I don’t have a reference for it, but at some point in the last month or two I ran across something legitimate looking that seemed to indicate either a protective effect regarding MS and smoking. I don’t think it said anything about either ameliorating or aggravating existing cases though.
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Anything like this, MJM?
Carbon monoxide may protect against MS symptoms
“In a novel experiment, moderate doses of carbon monoxide protected against the symptoms of multiple sclerosis in mice.
Researchers believe that the poisonous gas prevents the development of symptoms, such as paralysis, by stopping harmful molecules called free radicals from forming in the nervous symptom.
Miguel Soares at the Gulbenkian Science Institute in Oeiras, Portugal, and colleagues injected the animals with a protein mixture known to cause experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS).
Ten days later some of the mice were placed in a chamber where they breathed carbon monoxide (CO) at a concentration of about 500 parts per million for 20 days.
Soares notes that while the mice functioned normally at this level of CO exposure, a similar concentration of the gas can cause headaches and fainting in humans.”
At the end of the trial, the mice that had breathed CO showed much greater mobility than their control counterparts. While the experimental mice had limp tails, the control mice suffered complete hind limb paralysis.”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11036-carbon-monoxide-may-protect-against-ms-symptoms.html
“In fact CO is produced as a normal part of a reaction that generates antioxidants in the blood when tissues are inflamed. It was once dismissed as a worthless by-product of this reaction, but now it seems that the gas itself has the ability to calm inflammation in humans too.
“Your body is already loaded with carbon monoxide,” says Huib Kerstjens, …”
http: //www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726484.100-carbon-monoxide-could-fight-disease.html?feedId=health_rss20
Another one
Some people do find the idea rather alarming.
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/idea-carbon-monoxide-in-multiple.html
Everything I’ve managed to find on the potentially useful properties of carbon monoxide, it’s still a relatively new discovery.
http: //www.forces.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=363&t=1429
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Thank you, seriously, thank you. That is all most interesting and not a little cheering.
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LOL! Leg, you are SOOOOO mean! :> I’d bet dollars to donuts she really WILL start worrying about having TB now and will go get it checked. I can just hear the conversation as she starts asking the doctor if smoking protects people from TB! 🙂
In reality, while I don’t think the “tar-lining” thing is the cause (if you check around you’ll find a good # of honest docs who are on record saying that usual smokers’ lungs don’t look much different than most other folks’ lungs) but your point about germs being killed is certainly accurate. Soooo… if you think about it, when you smoke then some of the air you’re inhaling has been “cleansed” of germs as they pass through your burning “health and safety device.” And you’re not just protecting yourself, you’re also reducing the concentrations of deadly airborne microbes that nearby nonsmokers might have otherwise inhaled.
How many people have you saved from dying early and painful infected deaths in this way? How many children are alive and kicking today simply because you, in a true spirit of self-sacrifice, burned up the nasty virulent germs that would have infiltrated past their little bodily defenses and attacked their vital organs.
Leg, I think you, I, and all the other smokers of the world should get medals for the good work we do!
🙂
MJM
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Funny. I will share one with you. My 80 year old parents live across from an empty lot. It is a low rent formerly middle class town here. The mayor of this shitburg proposes putting up a gigantic low income, government subsidized housing project. And I quote her here, “Because that is the way of the future!” I fought it at the council meeting , lost, prepared for battle. It cost me four hundred bucks and I am not rich, but I paid four dreadlocked homeless crack addicts to hang around her house for a week. Knocked on her door and told her, “You best lose that project or that is the way of the future for you, honey” Two weeks later they gave it up…You can win, you just have to be a nasty bastard and be a bit brighter than the proles who are running things…
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That’s a Saul Alinsky type tactic. He always liked to come up with things that the opposition never expected.
– MJM
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“I won’t. Did you read about the rise in tuberculosis cases? Oh, and did you notice that very few of the cases were smokers? Smoker lungs are lined with tar, you see, so bacteria can’t get in.”
LI, it’s very wrong of you to give the poor girl bad information, it’s not the “tar” at all!
Shocker: `Villain’ Nicotine Slays Tb
A Ucf Researcher Said That Less Nicotine Than Is In A Single Cigarette Works.
“Naser’s research team uses naturally occurring substances taken from the jungles of Vietnam to the swamps of Florida in search of ones that might fight disease. He was working with tobacco plants when Naser noticed they were showing some effectiveness in quashing TB.
Unsure what specific component was at work, he decided to test nicotine because it is the most-studied compound in the tobacco plant. He got lucky. First nicotine killed regular tuberculosis, and then harder, drug-resistant strains that will not succumb to the usual medicines.”
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2001-05-22/news/0105220081_1_nicotine-tuberculosis-tb
“Other researchers are sceptical. “Lots of patients smoke and still get the disease,” says Salman Siddici of the company Bectin Dickinson, who has worked on TB. “Many drugs inhibit growth in the lab but don’t work in vivo.”
“Naser and his colleague George Ghobrial found that as little as 0.27 micrograms of nicotine per millilitre was enough to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It was also effective against other strains of Mycobacteria.
Naser says that smoking doesn’t work because the level of nicotine fluctuates so much. “The dosage is wrong,” he says.
The advantage of nicotine, Naser claims, is that it should work against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, he doesn’t yet understand how it destroys bacterial cells. His team now plans to test nicotine on TB bacteria growing in tissue cultures.”
http: //www.newscientist.com/article/dn769-nicotine-fix.html
Of course it’s never easy to tell if such disclaimers are due to political correctness or genuine.
Perhaps you might suggest chewing tobacco might be more effective in this instance.
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“Oh yes, smokers are immune to most infections because of all the gunk in our lungs”
Normal alveolar epithelial lining fluid contains high levels of glutathione.
“The epithelial cells on the alveolar surface of the human lower respiratory tract are vulnerable to toxic oxidants derived from inhaled pollutants or inflammatory cells. Although these lung cells have intracellular antioxidants, these defenses may be insufficient to protect the epithelial surface against oxidants present at the alveolar surface
“The total glutathione (the reduced form GSH and the disulfide GSSG) concentration of normal ELF was 140-fold higher than that in plasma of the same individuals, and 96% of the glutathione in ELF was in the reduced form.
Compared with nonsmokers, cigarette smokers had 80% higher levels of ELF total glutathione, 98% of which was in the reduced form.”
Studies of cultured lung epithelial cells and fibroblasts demonstrated that these concentrations of reduced glutathione were sufficient to protect these cells against the burden of H2O2 in the range released by alveolar macrophages removed from the lower respiratory tract of nonsmokers and smokers, respectively, suggesting that the glutathione present in the alveolar ELF of normal individuals likely contributes to the protective screen against oxidants in the extracellular milieu of the lower respiratory tract.”
http://jap.physiology.org/content/63/1/152.abstract?ijkey=3ea8cff64c6d72a42e1d4ef7cf9f6fd2485e5921&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
Glutathione: The Mother of All Antioxidants
“It’s the most important molecule you need to stay healthy and prevent disease — yet you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s the secret to prevent aging, cancer, heart disease, dementia and more, and necessary to treat everything from autism to Alzheimer’s disease. There are more than 89,000 medical articles about it — but your doctor doesn’t know how address the epidemic deficiency of this critical life-giving molecule …
What is it? I’m talking about the mother of all antioxidants, the master detoxifier and maestro of the immune system: GLUTATHIONE”
http: //www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/glutathione-the-mother-of_b_530494.html
“DANGER: Reading articles about health and disease can make you feel ill” ?
Maybe, but it makes an excellent starting point for further research.
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Not to mention that smoke has been used for millenia as a means of preserving food. No fungal or bacterial growth on smoked produce kept in a dry, well ventilated place.
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Good point.
Though I haven’t investigated that in depth, it makes good sense because plants have to make their own chemical defences against all manner of bacteria, fungal infections and insect attacks, otherwise they wouldn’t have survived.
I love the taste of smoked food.
Validation of smoke inhalation therapy to treat microbial infections.
CONCLUSION:
These results suggest that the combustion process produces an ‘extract’ with superior antimicrobial activity and provides in vitro evidence for inhalation of medicinal smoke as an efficient mode of administration in traditional healing”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18778765
But you can’t expect them to let us enjoy anything that includes that “extract” in peace, even if we have been preserving our food that way since the dawn of time..
Smoked food and cancer – 1980
“Smoking is a well-known source of food contaminated caused by carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Epidemiological studies indicates a statistical correlation between the increased occurrence of cancer of the intestinal tract and the frequent intake of smoked foods.”
http: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7447916
Thank goodness my ancestors have been crouching round piles of burning plant material for 1.3 million years or I might have been worried.
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MJM
“And you’re not just protecting yourself, you’re also reducing the concentrations of deadly airborne microbes that nearby nonsmokers might have otherwise inhaled.”
Apparently so
Medicinal Smoke Reduces Airborne Bacteria
“This study represents a comprehensive analysis and scientific validation of our ancient knowledge about the effect of ethnopharmacological aspects of natural products’ smoke for therapy and health care on airborne bacterial composition and dynamics, using the Biolog® microplate panelsand Microlog® database.
In this study, we have designed an air sampler for microbiological air sampling during the treatment of the room with medicinal smoke. In addition, elimination of the aerial pathogenic bacteria due to the smoke is reported too.
We have observed that 1 h treatment of medicinal smoke emination by burning wood and a mixture of odoriferous and medicinal herbs (havan sámagri = material used in oblation to fire all over India) on aerial bacterial population caused over 94% reduction of bacterial counts by 60 min and the ability of the smoke to purify or disinfect the air and to make the environment cleaner was maintained up to 24 h in the closed room.
Absence of pathogenic bacteria Corynebacterium urealyticum, Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens, Enterobacter aerogenes (Klebsiella mobilis), Kocuria rosea, Pseudomonassyringae pv. persicae, Staphylococcus lentus, and Xanthomonas campestris pv. tardicrescens inthe open room even after 30 days is indicative of the bactericidal potential of the medicinal smoke treatment.”
Click to access Medicinal%20smoke.pdf
“At the time of the Great Plague all kinds of nostrums were sold and recommended as preservatives or as cures. Most of these perished with the occasion that called them forth; but the names of some have been preserved in a rare quarto tract which was published in the Plague year, 1665, entitled “A Brief Treatise of the Nature, Causes, Signes,Preservation from and Cure of the Pestilence,” “collected by W. Kemp,Mr. of Arts.” In the list of devices for purifying infected air it is stated that “The American Silver-weed, or Tobacco, is very excellent
for this purpose, and an excellent defence against bad air, being smoked in a pipe, either by itself, or with Nutmegs shred, and Rew Seeds mixed with it, especially if it be nosed”–which, I suppose, means if the smoke be exhaled through the nose–“for it cleanseth the air, and choaketh, suppresseth and disperseth any venomous vapour.”
http: //www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=227366&pageno=36
Medical Uses of Tobacco, Past and Present
“When the Plague was happily stayed, the virtues of tobacco began to be investigated, and it was found that those persons who plentifully used it, either in smoking or in snuffing, had most wonderfully escaped the dire contagion: for though they’ visited the chambers of the sick, attended the funerals of cartloads at a time, they unexpectedly avoided the infection.”
Although Allen in 1835 declared that this idea that tobacco operated as an antidote to contagious and infectious diseases was gratuitous and fallacious, the belief continued to play a role in public health for some time.
It was reported in The Lancet (1: 201, 1882) that smallpox having appeared in the Bolton Workhouse, the Guardians resolved to issue tobacco freely to the inmates in order that the wards may be disinfected by the fumes.
And, in another note in The Lancet (1 : 406, 1913) of a later date: “A good many years ago it was reported by the senior medical officer of Greenwich Workhouse that the tobacco smoking inmates enjoyed comparative immunity from epidemics, and tobacco-smoking was believed to have had the disinfectant action in cases of cholera and other infectious diseases.”
http: //tobaccodocuments.org/ness/2445.html?zoom=750&ocr_position=above_foramatted&start_page=1
Which may be the original reason why smoking was allowed in prisons until very recently .
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Rose, you find the most INCREDIBLE stuff! You’re AMAZING!
🙂
MJM
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sssh,MJM, you will make me blush.
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Meanwhile –
Everything comes to she who waits. I missed this one yesterday.
Eating Foods With Nicotine Could Help Prevent Parkinson’s Disease
09 May 2013
“Certain species of a flowering plant family called “Solanaceae” have chemical properties that can help prevent the development of Parkinson’s disease. Some of the species are edible sources of nicotine, a chemical which is thought to have a neuroprotective effect upon dopaminergic neurons, providing a protective effect against the disease.
The finding, which was published in a journal of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, Annals of Neurology, revealed that consuming certain foods that contain nicotine, such as plants belonging to the Solanaceae family, as well as peppers and tomatoes, could help lower Parkinson’s risk.
Could nicotine help prevent the development of the disease?
Studies have found an association between tobacco (which is a species of Solanaceae) and a reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease, although experts aren’t yet 100% certain if it is the nicotine and perhaps another component in tobacco that prevents the development of the disease, or just the fact that Parkinson’s patients were never the “smoking types”.”
“They found that people who ate high levels of edible Solanaceae were at a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease compared to those who didn’t eat as much. Of all the different plants or foods with nicotine, pepper consumption appeared to provide the best protection.”
http: //www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/260354.php
Previously
Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke Widespread – 1996
“Nearly 9 out of 10 non-smoking Americans are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS, or second-hand smoke), as measured by the levels of cotinine in their blood, according to a study conducted by HHS’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“The data, reported by CDC in this week’s edition of the “Journal of the American Medical Association,” shows measurable levels of cotinine in the blood of 88 percent of all non-tobacco users.
The presence of cotinine, a chemical the body metabolizes from nicotine, is documentation that a person has been exposed to tobacco smoke”
“”This study documents for the first time the widespread exposure of people in the U.S. to environmental tobacco smoke. This new information will be critical in estimating the extent of related disease and developing effective public health strategies,” said David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/96news/nrsmoke.htm
Study raises concerns about outdoor second-hand smoke – 2009
“To put that number into context, a widely cited study has determined that an average cotinine level of 0.4 ng/ml increases lung cancer deaths by 1 for every 1,000 people and increases heart disease deaths by 1 for every 100 people.”
http: //www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/uog-src111809.php
Bear in mind that anti-tobacco have known all about dietary nicotine in non-smokers since 1993 when they were informed that using cotinine as a measure of exposure to tobacco smoke was therefore compromised.
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http://www.umdnj.edu/umcweb/marketing_and_communications/publications/umdnj_magazine/spring2008/7.htm
‘What if there was a chemical in the brain that could control the physiological mechanisms that modulate the immune system and prevent inflammation? This would mean that a secret to all sorts of infectious and inflammatory disorders, even the ones in which an overprotective immune system causes all the unhealthy havoc — like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease and the severe sepsis that is responsible for nearly 10 percent of all deaths in the U.S. each year — was right there in the brain chemistry all along. Now what if there was a natural biochemical substance in Nicotiana tabacum, or toxic tobacco, that turned this chemical switch on?’
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Interesting article, but there is lot more to smoking than just nicotine.
Nicotine: does it have a role in the treatment of ulcerative colitis?
“Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease state of unknown etiology. Its progression is erratic, with patients experiencing periods of exacerbations and remissions. Current therapeutic options have yielded less than satisfactory results.
With the discovery of the potential relationship between nonsmoking status and the onset of ulcerative colitis and the development of various nicotine dosage forms came the hypothesis that nicotine may play a protective role against the development of ulcerative colitis and maintenance of remission.
Hence, investigators began conducting clinical trials on the use of available nicotine dosage forms in the management of ulcerative colitis.”
“Overall, investigation of nicotine in the treatment of ulcerative colitis has yielded disappointing results.
CONCLUSION: Nicotine cannot be recommended as adjunctive or single therapy for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and will not alter current treatment options.”
http: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10423604
Carbon Monoxide Soothes Inflammatory Bowel Disease
“Doctors have long known that smokers rarely suffer from a common form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) called ulcerative colitis, but they didn’t know why.
A new study in the December 19 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine might help explain this apparent resistance. Scott Plevy and his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh now show that carbon monoxide (CO), a component of cigarette smoke, helps shut down the intestinal inflammation that causes ulcerative colitis.”
“But recent scientific studies have shown that CO — at least at low concentrations — has a redeeming quality: it acts as an anti-inflammatory agent”
“The group traced the action of inhaled CO to a protein that is produced by immune cells called interleukin (IL)-12. IL-12 is normally produced during infection and helps activate the immune cells that fight off the invading pathogens.
But chronic production of IL-12 in the gut also drives the inflammation that causes ulcerative colitis.
Inhaled CO inhibited the production of IL-12, short-circuiting the disease-causing inflammation.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060103084934.htm
Now what if there was a natural biochemical substance in Nicotiana tabacum, or toxic tobacco, that turned this chemical switch on?’
One of the gases in the smoke appears to fulfill that function.
Harvard and University of Pittsburgh Researchers Explain Carbon Monoxide’s Anti-inflammatory Effects
“In a study appearing in the April 2007 issue of The FASEB Journal, scientists from Harvard University and the University of Pittsburgh have shown for the first time that the anti-inflammatory effects of carbon monoxide originate within cells’ own molecular engines, mitochondria.
Specifically, mitochondria react to low levels of carbon monoxide by releasing chemical signals that reduce or shut down the body’s inflammatory response, raising the possibility for the development of new anti-inflammatory therapies, one of which may be low levels of inhaled carbon monoxide.”
http: //www.newswiretoday.com/news/15215/Harvard_and_University_of_Pittsburgh_Researchers_Explain_Carbon_Monoxides_Antiinflammatory_Effects/
I’m sure that was a surprise to everyone.
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Rose – it is truly wonderful when someone sets you off on one of these research tangents. If this was the 1980s when real science was still around, you would have made it to professor in a week.
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It’s all stuck in my head, Leggy.
When someone says the right word it triggers an avalanche.
I do hope you don’t mind.
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Mind? Of course not! In fact I’d say you should write it all up and publish it. I’ll bet everyone here would buy it.
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What a terrifying thought.
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Don’t tell the antismokers about this. It’ll spoil my fun.
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On the other hand you could perplex them even more by telling them there is real evidence that passive smoking offers them some protection from ghastly bugs/diseases. For example, it is no coincidence that MSRA thrives in smoke free hospitals.
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MRSA
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The thing about that bug is… I can’t help singing its name, Village People style.
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Prog wrote, ” it is no coincidence that MRSA thrives in smoke free hospitals.” Quite true! Worth repeating a LOT! :>
And Leg, you never cease to amaze me: “The thing about that bug is… I can’t help singing its name, Village People style.”
Only you Leg. Only you…. LOL! Now you’ve got it running in MY brain too!!!
:>
Michael
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M-R-S-A
You get it free on the
old-N-H-S
Oh, if only I had the time to get properly drunkenly creative…
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Apparently they did have some success with MRSA, by spraying plant oils into the air.
Essential oils ‘combat superbug’
“Tests of new machine at a hospital have found it could be effective in the battle against the superbug MRSA.
Consultants at Wythenshawe Hospital found that using a vaporiser to spray essential oils into the atmosphere killed off micro-organisms.
Airborne bacterial counts dropped by 90% and infections were reduced in a nine-month trial at the burns unit.”
“There were no MRSA infections in the burns unit while the machine was being used with the recipe of oils.
In the final two months the natural essence blend was removed from the machines and MRSA levels in the air increased – and there was an MRSA outbreak in the ward.
The recipe of oils used in the machine was refined by microbiologists at Manchester Metropolitan University”
“However, the researchers say they are unable to reveal which oils carry benefits because of commercial sensitivities”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6471475.stm
But I think that we can hazard a guess.
‘Killer Spices’ Provide Eco-Friendly Pesticides For Organic Fruits And Veggies
“In a study presented at the American Chemical Society’s 238th National Meeting, scientists in Canada are reporting exciting new research on these so-called “essential oil pesticides” or “killer spices.” These substances represent a relatively new class of natural insecticides that show promise as an environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional pesticides while also posing less risk to human and animal health, the researcher says.
“We are exploring the potential use of natural pesticides based on plant essential oils — commonly used in foods and beverages as flavorings,” says study presenter Murray Isman, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia. These new pesticides are generally a mixture of tiny amounts of two to four different spices diluted in water. Some kill insects outright, while others repel them.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090816170910.htm
So presumably those are the next target for the prohibitionists.
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The oils are sticky and the spray will drop out of the air quickly. They could get the same sort of result using old engine oil.
All they’ve done is stick the airborne bacteria to every available surface. Infections were reduced because there are fewer bugs to breathe in, but they aren’t necessarily dead. I’m betting that if they looked at the physical rather than the chemical properties of those oils, they’d be better able to predict which ones are likely to give the same result.
Then it could be done using a cheap oil followed by proper surface cleaning to get rid of the little buggers.
Or they could just let the patients smoke and ventilate the wards. That would cost the NHS next to nothing and send more money into the Treasury.
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Here’s another one for you all. Last time I was at the dentist he said that since I am a smoker he wants to see me at six month intervals instead of the twelve months I’d been doing for years. The reason he gave was because of the sugar(s) in tobacco. I can’t remember if he used the plural. I know if anyone mentions sugar to dentists pound signs start dancing before their eyes, but I want to know if it really is worth going twice as often, or am I simply being deceived/lied to? Any comments?
h
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I’ve never heard that one before and certainly never thought of questioning my six monthly appointments.
Having had a quick look round air dried tobacco contains very little sugar whereas flu curing turns the starch to sugar apparently.
I have seen a lot of items that blame the sugar used to sweeten chewing tobacco and it seems that 6 monthly check ups was going to be abolished in 2001.
Government set to abolish six-monthly dental check
2001
“THE Government is set to abolish the six-monthly NHS dental check-up which has been common practice for 50 years.
There is a growing consensus between dental academics and health ministers that twice-yearly visits to the dentist are a waste of time and money. Now the Department of Health is to commission studies to test “a more flexible recall system”. The change in policy will require a change in the way dentists are paid – they now receive £6.15 pence for each NHS check-up.
Check-ups on adults cost the NHS £108 million last year and public health specialists believe that much of the money could be better spent. However, Aubrey Sheiham, the professor of dental health at University College London, estimates that the NHS could save £200 million a year if adults were offered a yearly check-up only and dentists cut back on “unnecessary” polishing and scaling, which earns them £9.70 a time.
He said: “There is no evidence for 90 per cent of adults that they need to go to the dentist every six months. The majority could go every two to three years because their dental health is so good. We should be asking if people have to go that often, particularly the under-40s, who are dentally healthier because we now have fluoride toothpaste.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1324947/Government-set-to-abolish-six-monthly-dental-check.html
I thought that blaming tobacco for tooth decay, ignoring all other sources of sugar, was mostly because tobacco was used as a toothpaste for centuries and still is in some countries although they have banned it.
Now I have done a bit of research on that.
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You are being deceived. If it’s any consolation, it’s probably not by your dentist. Most likely he is being deceived too.
All plant material contains sugars. It’s what they do. Photosynthesis produces sugar and that’s then stored as starch (long chains of sugar). However, burned sugar is carbon dioxide and water. If you were chewing tobacco there might be an extraordinarily tenuous case but if you are vegetarian the case would be far, far stronger.
Basically it’s more health scare bollocks but if smokers get dentistry checked twice as often as non smokers, I say go along with it. If you ever get a serious problem you’ll get treated twice as fast as the sneering Righteous.
Always tell a doctor you smoke. Always. Even if you never have. They will then test everything. Twice.
Tell them you don’t smoke and they start with the assumption there can’t be anything wrong with you.
It’s far safer to be a smoker these days.
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Thanks Rose, L-i. I now feel much better imformed, even if I’m not particularly the wiser. Cheers,
h
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“The doleful effects of nicotine on the teeth were revealed by Rev. George Trask in a mid-nineteenth-century tract.”
illustration
http: //tobaccodocuments.org/ti/TIFL0069563-9578.html?zoom=750&images_per_page=1&ocr_position=above_foramatted&start_page=14
In the Southern States
“The purported health benefit of snuff had been as a dentifrice, imparting to the teeth “that peculiar brilliancy for which the ladies of Southern Europe are so justly celebrated.”
“[I]t is claimed that it whitens and preserves the teeth and sweetens the mouth, and produces a beneficial effect on the lungs, all of which is true or not, just as you choose to believe.”
http: //www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/snuff.htm
Medicinal uses of tobacco in history
“Tobacco, probably mixed with lime or chalk, appears to have been used in these Native American populations as a toothpaste to whiten the teeth, as observed by Nino and Guerra in 1500 and by Vespucci at about the same time in Venezuela.
This practice continues today in India, where powdered tobacco, or masheri, is rubbed on the teeth for this purpose and tobacco toothpaste is marketed commercially”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079499/
Companies Flout Law on Tobacco in Tooth Care Products.
BMJ 7 February 2004
“Use of tobacco products as dentifrice among adolescents in India: questionnaire study BMJ Volume 328, pp 323-4
“Up to 68% of adolescents in India use dental products containing tobacco, despite a law barring manufacturers from using tobacco as an ingredient in any toothpaste or toothpowder, reveals a study in this week’s BMJ.
The authors believe that many companies are taking advantage of a widespread misconception in India that tobacco is good for the teeth by packaging and positioning their products as dental care products.
Researchers surveyed samples of school students aged 13-15 in 14 Indian states. The use of tobacco products as dentifrice varied from 6% (Goa) to 68% (Bihar).
Of the specific products, tobacco toothpaste and tooth powder were common in all states. Other dentifrice products containing tobacco included mishri (roasted and powdered tobacco), gudakhu (paste of tobacco and molasses), and tobacco water used for gargling.
The 1992 amendment to India’s Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 barred manufacturers from using tobacco as an ingredient in any toothpaste or toothpowder, say the authors.
But, ten years on, this study shows clearly that the regulations have not been implemented adequately.”
http: //www.newswise.com/articles/view/503073/
But I expect that is no help at all.
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I wonder if Tara C Smith has had sex with a man. I don’t want to get smutty, but if he asks her to prove that she loves him, what horrible nasties lurk on that thing she’s putting into her mouth?
I am talking about his tongue, quiet down the back, you!
What would Doctor Smith say if she knew that I will be smelling raw petrol thrice today – as I usually do, on Sundays? Not only that, it’s leaded petrol.
Tara C Smith strikes me as the sort of person who, had she be born in antiquity, would have advised Ug not to play with fire/make that wheel/fashion a bow and arrow because of the dangers involved.
Luckily, Ug was made of sterner stuff than we, and would have simply twatted the gobshite with his club. Here’s to Ug!
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Health and safety would have halted wheel research on the grounds that it might roll over someone.
Hm. Actually they would have been right.
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