Mobile phones
” If repeated often enough, a lie will become the new truth. “
Paul Joseph Goebbles, Minister of Propaganda, Nazi Germany
What exactly are the dangers of passive smoking?
I have been trying to do some research on the Interweb, and I am finding some very conflicting evidence.
One research found that passive smoking is equivalent to smoking six cigarettes a year.
Another quotes the following from a study of German flight crew –
“We found a rather remarkably low SMR [standardized incidence ratio] for lung cancer among female cabin attendants and no increase for male cabin attendants, indicating that smoking and exposure to passive smoking may not play an important role in mortality in this group. Smoking during airplane flights was permitted in Germany until the mid-1990s, and smoking is still not banned on all charter flights. The risk of cardiovascular disease mortality for male and female air crew was surprisingly low (reaching statistical significance among women).”
So what is the risk?
The entire basis for the smoking ban was to “protect non-smokers in a smoking environment”. The key word here is ‘protect’ [i.e. to remove a potential harm].
Most of the studies I found that proved passive smoking to be a danger were either biassed or anecdotal.
So let’s just say the jury is out on this one.
The jury is also out on the effects of mobile phones and phone masts.
Yet I have seen no laws banning the use of mobile phones? Why?
To me, the danger of mobile phone usage is possibly more important than the dangers of passive smoking.
I find mobile phones to be very irritating. I resent my peace being shattered by some bimbo shrieking that she is “sooo not happy” at not being invited to someone’s party, or some yuppy conducting some bit of ego-boosting business on the train.
I constantly have to be on the lookout for people who are driving while waffling on the phone. And I’m talking about hands-free phones here, before you all start moaning. They are concentrating so much on the conversation that they are completely unaware of their surroundings. The same goes for people on pavements. They barge around, pushing people onto the street because they are so wrapped up in some little domestic or social crisis.
And what of the dangers of radiation from all these phones around me? Not to mention the masts? Is my brain being constantly fried every time I go into town? Is this the cause of my insanity?
What about the kids who get mugged, beaten up or even murdered for their phones?
What about the invasion of privacy with the proliferation of camera phones?
Happy-slapping?
Mobile phones are a far greater danger to public health than passive smoking.
I just thought I’d run the idea up the flagpole and see who salutes.
You make some very interesting points, Grandad, but honestly the real menace in D4-country is Bebo. Bebo is a mind control device that the Government is using to subdue everyone from the ages of 18 to 25. And I hate it, having escaped its grasp.
Terry Goodkind also makes a very shrewd series of points throughout his Sword of Truth series, disguising them as Wizard’s Rules.
The Wizard’s First Rule?
‘People can be made to believe any lie, either because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it’s true‘.
A lot of that shit you talked about is nothing more than propaganda.
Look at the first two results from this Google search. The “even greater” one is the newest.
The risk for me is the stink it leaves on my clothes – what am I gonna wear tomorrow? Also, the comfort factor. Whatever the health implications, it can be just plain annoying for a non-smoker to have smoke blown in their face.
I agree on the mobiles thing though. There’s little conclusive evidence about long-term exposure to those magnetic fields and what-not. I sometimes get a weird “pulse” in my head when I hold a phone to my ear. People laugh but it’s a disturbing feeling.
@Dario – That Wizard’s First Rule is very true. I never asked before – do you smoke? [tobacco, I mean]
@Kav – I completely agree about cigarette smoke in the face. I hate it. I think it’s the saltpetre that they put in them. Foul stuff.
The argument about clothes smelling doesn’t wash [sorry!] though. You are just as likely to have beer spilled over you. Or come home reeking of air freshener.
I don’t smoke at all. I’ve been known to take an occasional cigarette when in Professor Dario drunkenness phase – about ten pints and bingo – but that’s because I can’t taste them. My mother used to smoke when I was a kid, and that’s what put me off them.
What you smoke, a pipe, I have no problem with. Pipe smoke has a nice aroma to it.
Interesting. It’s just that non-smokers tend to flame me for my opinions. I had you down as a non-smoker for some reason and was a bit surprised when you didn’t send a couple of scud missiles.
As for the pipe thing – I haven’t met anyone yet who objected to the smell of a pipe.
No, if people want to smoke cigarettes, that’s fine with me; I won’t go around telling people what to do. I still think it’s a filthy habit, yeah, and the attractiveness of any woman I see smoking diminishes somewhat, but who am I to tell people what to do?
I only object to smoking in pubs because cigarettes smell of some sulphur compound and I hate that smell. Take it away, and people can puff till their lungs bleed for all I care.
As for the Scuds, the UN took them off me after that whole Geneva issue.
The Swiss don’t count as normal people – they’re robots in disguise!
“some sulphur compound”
That’s the saltpetre. You only find it in cigarettes, not pipe, cigar or roll-your-own baccy.
Saltpetre is the stuff they use in fuses!! Makes you think?
I smoke cigarettes. I drink beer. I like both Gin and Vodka and come to think of it I like Bourbon too. My only telephone is a cell phone. I ride a motorcycle. Sometimes I don’t wear a helmet. I eat red meat. I like some fried food. I hunt. I don’t wear sunscreen when I work out in the lawn. I like coffee, black. I use power tools without a helmet, faceshield, gloves and kevlar clothes. I put bleach in my laundry and it’s not in a well ventilated and open area. I do not lather, rinse and repeat. I run with scissors. I do not look both ways before crossing the street.
Cripes, I should have died years ago!
Just like myself [apart from the motorbike bit]. Maybe you are dead and in heaven???
Grandad,
I used to smoke and I used to drink. I am also still here and getting up in years.
In fact,Grandad, I am so old that when I go out to eat they ask for the money up front.
BUT, one thing I still really enjoy is the aroma of a fine pipe tobacco wafting through the air.
So, smoke on, Grandad; the old ladies really love it. And some young ones do, too.
And to think I believed you when you said you weren’t obsessed with smoking… Perhaps you are turning your blog into a refuge for smokers… a place where they are not treated as drug addicts.
Disliking mobile phones more than cigarette smoking won’t make smoking fashionable again, I think.
I once married a woman who smoked in bed. Now I’d never snog anyone who smoked in the last fortnight.
The only thing I hate about smoking is the price of cigarettes! $11.00 per pack 25! Over here it’s a status symbol.
Stop moaning Baino. That works out, by my calculations at €5.36 per 20. They are over €7 here. So 25 fags here would cost $14.47.
Hiya Omani.
Here we go again.
Three points –
1. If you read the post, what I am on about is the introduction of a law on very tenuous evidence, were another law should be brought in on stronger evidence. It is the law and its stupidities I am talking about.
2. I think you might be the one who has an obsession with smoking – note your persistent and puerile use of the term “drug addict” [we’ve had this one out before].
3. I take it our date tonight is off?
Ah yes, but Wizard’s First Rule, and that series of books as a whole, is nothing but a mouthpiece for the batshitinasanities of Terry Goodkind. The man who believes in a weird ass version of fascism. And that “Gang rape, after all, is democracy in action”
I haven’t read Terry Goodkind, but your proposition that “Gang rape is democracy in action” is a very interesting one for debate.
Yes. Gang rape is democracy in action. It is the will of the majority, which is the basis of democracy.
It is of course a facile sound bite because it ignores all elements of morality and legality, and is therefore totally invalid. I doubt anyone would seriously take democracy as a justification for gang rape. But in theory ……. ?
Nancy,
You managed to slip a comment in and I nearly didn’t notice!!
I shall indeed continue to smoke my pipe [unless I decide to quit], despite the opinions of some that I am an emissary of the devil himself.
As you say, I am constantly complimented on the aroma. Often it is an overheard remark from a couple passing or from a nearby café table.
you say “I find mobile phones to be very irritating”. I say “I find people smoking in pubs, trains, enclosed spaces very irratating” We’re both right, difference is you have a blog. you may have just inspired me to start one…………..
Good idea!!
Incidentally, have you ever heard of someone being killed for their pack of 20 fags?
How did cigarettes ever receive the moniker of FAG?
I’m serious. The first time I heard that I was probably 12 or 13 and I thought that was the funniest thing I had ever heard.
Squares, smokes, cancer sticks, I get but fags?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, it’s from “fag-end” :”the last part of a piece of cloth”, which became commonly used as a reference to cigarettes during the First War.
It is still used here to mean the ‘end of poorer quality’ i.e. – fag-end of beef meaning the tail-end of a joint.
You asked for it – you got it!
Heh, when I mentioned Terry Goodking, I honestly don’t care what his views on political things are; he’s wrote some pretty good books.
Personally, I see the Sword of Truth series as being a jab at religion as much as anything; the whole idea of the Imperial Order is to enslave mankind under a set of rigid beliefs, Richard struggles to free D’Hara and ultimately mankind from the looming threat of them.
Thus Goodkind is probably a Red or an athiest. Still doesn’t stop me from enjoying his books though.
Typo-rific.
Note the First: I hate Terry Goodkind’s books. They’re drivel. Worse! They’re long-winded drivel.
Note the Second: Comparing an Author to the actions/opinions of his characters is the definition of “dumb.”
Note the Third: Why are cameraphones an invasion of Privacy? It’s not like you can’t do exactly the same thing with a camera in hand. There are just more of them, now. I don’t know the law in Ireland, but in the U.S. it’s legal to photograph in almost every public circumstance. In fact, I can’t think of an example where you would not be allowed to take images in a public situation (private property, etc., is different, of course).
Note the Fourth: Smoking doesn’t bother me, unless it’s near me. But I don’t demand the patrons of a bar stop smoking because I walk in. I do enjoy living in a smoke-free county, though; I can eat my dinner without having cigarette plumes wafting over my food.
Did someone mention the tail end of a joint?
Virtually everyone seems to have a camera phone these days, and of course they carry them with them. Very few people carry cameras.
Cameras are also obvious things, whereas no-one notices phones these days.
People can take photographs anonymously almost anywhere and the ‘victim’ wouldn’t be aware of it. And the law doesn’t come into it.
So don’t do anything in public that you wouldn’t want a picture taken of? This seems like a reasonable precaution, just like you wouldn’t do anything in public that you wouldn’t want people *seeing* you do.
I’m still not sure why you consider a cameraphone an invasion of privacy. I might agree that the prevalence of phones can be annoying due to people’s lack of judgment concerning their use and misuse, but the camera itself isn’t very intrusive.
I love your quip about our date…
@B.Rusham – Before I go further, Dario has written a nice piece about this in his blog in the paragraph Let Battle Commence.
But I digress. For the sake of argument, suppose I get drunk some night and make a fool of myself and a ‘mate’ snaps a photo and shows it around the office [or puts it on the web]? Incidentally, that is hypothetical, as I don’t get drunk much lately, and I’m retired, but you get the principle?? If that happened to you or a friend would you consider it an invasion of privacy? It has happened to others.
@Omani – 😉
I would ban cameras on the grounds that I am sick to death of seeing that asshole Pete Doherty gach la in the papers.
And I wouldn’t necessarily call it a nice piece myself …
Grandad, thanks for crossposting about Dario. It’s nice to be able to rebutt.
Back to the cameraphone thing. How is it different between a mate who snaps a photo of you lying in a drunken state and a mate who tells the story of your drunken stupor? This moves back to what you would do in public and be willing to have strangers witness. I will acknowleged that having a picture taken might be more damaging than an amusing story, but it’s a matter of a degree, not kind.
Stories could all be a lie; I have often heard b-s stories that weren’t true on drinking nights.
Photos, on the other hand, provide incontrovertible evidence that yes, you were wasted, and no, that bird you were chatting up wasn’t at all hot.
Stories can be embellished, but pictures, as they say, tell a thousand words.
oh miii god yuu r all gay !?!?!?!?!
Yes, Bob. I am happy. I wouldn’t quite say ‘gay’ though.
Unless, of course, you mean homosexual, in which case I would love to hear how you work that out.
If you reply, could you please use normal spelling. Text speak is irritating, lazy and juvenile.