Chris Snowon reports that the evidence just does not support the lie that heart attacks have plummeted since the odious smoking ban was imposed. This guest post shows that no one else believes it either.
BY GORDON PYE
All the health fascists were leaping up and down with glee earlier this year claiming what a success their " Corporate Nazi " smoking ban had been at reducing the number of heart attacks according to the latest statistics. However, alongside the smoking ban all the big four supermarkets have removed food products containing hydrogenated vegetable oil ( transfats ) from their shelves. Danish research demonstrate that eating transfats significantly increase the risk of heart attacks and therefore they were totally banned as long ago as 2005.
A 2005 Ch4 Dispatches Christmas health scare ( put you of your Xmas dinner ) revealed that all the supermarkets included transfats in products like minced pies to improve their shelf life. After said programme all the big four pledged to remove transfats from their shelves, and by 2009 it was found that only small player Lidl sold only one product still containing transfats. Lidl said it would withdraw transfats from said product ( packs of croissants ) ASAP so now transfats are effectively banned from our food chain.
The big four acted to remove transfats immediately after the 2005 programme so that by mid 2006 they were gone from 90% of shelves. I suspect that far more people were consuming transfats than smoking, but most of the people consuming a larger amount of transfats were likely to be smokers also based on social and income groups. It would appear that not that many people have actually given up smoking since the smoking ban, the health fascists attempted to portray the majority of the decrease in heart attack was probably due to less exposure to " passive smoking ".
I have never personally been convinced by the passive smoking health risk argument except for extreme cases in enclosed spaces. It would appear that health fascism is based on quasi-religion like climate science and road safety policy. You have to take into account that the majority of octogenarians smoked at some time in their life, ate loads of animal fats as the key part of their diet and if they are anything like my 87 year old dad still do.
From my experience it would appear that the key to a long and healthy life is a good balanced diet as young children. Plenty of full cream milk to promote strong teeth and bones, quite a large proportion of red meat in your diet, but also including poultry and fish. In fact the reverse of what the health fascists now preach but they are mostly doctors and wouldn't want to put themselves out of a lucrative job ?
Not really part of the same argument but coronary care has come on in leaps and bounds over the last few years. Any GP worth their salt have been identifying at risk groups ( particularly the over 40s ) and prescribing medication for high cholesterol / blood pressure long before any potential heart attack is likely to happen.
In the meantime the smoking ban has closed thousands of local pubs where people were likely to meet and exchange / develop political views etc. However good the Internet is it can never replace face to face social interaction. Perhaps all part of a Corporate Nazi plan to fragment communities, but could lead to the emergence of far right groups like the BNP ( already happening ). The result could be a split in the vote and a party gaining government with an even smaller portion of the population actually voting for it. Not good for our freedom and democracy in the long run, the road towards a potential civil war.
I could add that corporate employers could have backed the smoking ban on the theory that they could screw every last second out of their workforce. However, having a fag helps you to think clearer and therefore their is likely to be a detrimental effect on overall productivity. Furthermore, there nothing worse for productivity than having someone desperate for their next nicotine hit, of course the Corporate Nazi's profit from this by selling expensive patches, gum and now lozenges. As usual with any " safety policy " the object of the exercise is to promote false economic growth which increases the financial apartheid between rich and relatively poor.