Sunday 20 November 2011

Comments Of The Day

Oh dear. There appears to be a quite astonishingly deluded sap in comments at the Observer.

Zakelius
20 November 2011 1:47AM

People comparing car exhausts to smoking are wrong. Have you any idea how much cleaner car fumes are compared to twenty years ago? Suicide in the garage with a hosepipe attached to the exhaust is practically impossible now
Harmless, so it is.

I wouldn't mind it so much if cigarette smoke didn't kill people, and that's the problem. If your right to smoke infringes the health rights of others, the government rightly should act to stop it.
Whereas smelling smoke from someone else's cigarette is a bona fide death sentence.

Meanwhile, in the US, just living next door to a smoker is akin to enduring chemical warfare.

If I was being poisoned by chemical like cyanide, that is grounds of federal imprisonment, yet there is cyanide, carbon monoxide, etc., in second hand smoke that I am stuck breathing in my $3050 a month apartment
Yes, they are stupid beyond belief. The kind of person for whom licking windows is a strange compulsion. Yet they haven't formed these opinions themselves, they both have their roots in pronouncements from individuals in power who are supposed to be trusted.

"But let me give you one headline to remember - it would be safer to have your exhaust pipe on the inside of your car than smoke a cigarette, in terms of fine particulate matter released. And evidence suggests rolling down the window doesn't eliminate the problem." [Dr Douglas Noble, BMA public health committee, June 2011]
We're still waiting for Noble to illustrate his hypothesis with a practical experiment, but I can't see it coming anytime soon, can you?

While the pathetically small traces of hydrogen cyanide in secondhand smoke pale into insignificance when compared to industrial output - for which there are clearly defined acceptable levels - yet reality didn't stop the NHS peddling such mythical scaremongery on bus shelter ads in 2006.


So is it really that surprising that the weak-minded amongst us will start to believe that black is white; that the inconsequential is an imminent personal armageddon?

No, of course not.

What should worry us greatly, though, is that we are condemned to live under an administration consisting of idiots who believe such nonsense. Probably why there is a growing body abroad who view our once-proud country as a bit of an effete basket case.

"What a freaking nanny state. Going from the largest empire on earth, to the country that stood alone in WWII, to a country where the government oversees all."
I'd like to argue, really I would, but ...


8 comments:

Trooper Thompson said...

I volunteer to put Dr Noble's statement to the test. I sit in a car smoking, he sits in a car with a hosepipe from the exhaust. We can carry on as long as he likes.

Anonymous said...

He,s lucky he does,nt live next door to me with me and the missus on 20+ a day.It would be like living next to a veritable sub-urban Bopal.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Anon. That's nothing! Wife and I on 40 + a day each. In our 70s. No signs of smoking related diseases.

Ben said...

Arsenic is a natural ingredient in drinking water.
http://www.water.org.uk/home/resources-and-links/waterfacts/drinkingwater/technical-briefings/arsenic.pdf

Jay said...

Evidently, Zakelius is from Australia (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/user/Zakelius), a country which is now certifiably insane. It's no wonder this guy thinks exhaust fumes are safe. Yeah, they're safe all right... on an electric car...

Completely unrelated to the above, would anyone care to join me in leaving those Review the Smoking ban cards on the shelves of Cancer Research UK's shops? This is going to be my new hobby. :)

Dick Puddlecote said...

Jay: Top idea. Get a member of staff offering to sign it and we'll detail it here. :)

Lyn said...

Car fumes cleaner today? I don't think so!

I was speaking to a guy who studied chemistry at Uni and who told me that the fuel today contains benzine which is far more toxic than lead!

He does not work in the field however as he did not want to fiddle results to suit those paying for the research!

Trooper Thompson - I will happily join you if the cretin, or is that suicidal, Noble takes you up on your challenge - at least that would be one down!

Starship Fighter said...

My car is an exceptionally clean 109g/km diesel engine,and, even as a smoker, there's not a fucking chance I'd sit in a garage with the engine running! Are these people so deluded that they sincerely believe that cigs produce anything like that amount of particulate pollution? Seriously? It would appear that anti-smoking hysteria is beginning to take on some of the dogmatic belief characteristics of organised religion...