PRESS RELEASE


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 17, 2007


Passive Fraud?

The American Council on Science and Health has served the world of Medical Journals a hard blow with its “Health Facts & Fears” publication of A Study Delayed: Helena, MT's Smoking Ban and the Heart Attack Study by Mid-Atlantic Regional Director Michael J. McFadden, and Director of Research David W. Kuneman of The Smoker's Club, Inc. (http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.990/news_detail.asp)

The article describes a groundbreaking study showing that widespread state smoking bans produce absolutely no detectable reduction in heart attacks. It recounts the authors’ efforts to have those results published in medical journals intimately connected with smoking ban research, and most particularly in two journals that had previously published strongly contradictory results.

Instead of welcoming the corrective research, the medical journals seemed to bend over backwards to reject findings that were simply "not politically correct". Indeed, the main reason for rejection given by the British Medical Journal, publisher of the world-famous Helena study that had claimed an instant post-ban 40% reduction in heart attacks, was that "we did not think it added enough, for general readers, to what is already known about smoking and health." The BMJ felt it was unimportant for “general readers” to see those results despite the fact that the Helena study garners over 400,000 hits on a Google search, and felt it didn’t “add enough… to what is already known” despite its diametrically opposite results.

McFadden and Kuneman were understandably disturbed. Smoking bans were being passed that impacted the lives of millions, and yet the Journal felt that research striking at the heart of such bans simply didn’t “add enough” to be worth publishing.

Mr. McFadden, best known for his authorship of Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains, was particularly outspoken in his denunciation: “We feel the Journal violated its own guidelines in several important areas, and we believe they did so deliberately in order to delay or prevent public dissemination of findings that would weaken the push for smoking bans at a vital point in history.”

Mr. Kuneman, a retired pharmaceutical chemist who has been attacked as a “tobacco company researcher” simply because of a five-year 1980’s stint with the Philip Morris owned 7-Up soda company, added “Our study clearly showed that the Helena phenomenon is non-existent when examined on a larger scale. Claiming that smoking bans will protect nonsmokers from heart attacks is shown to be complete and utter nonsense once one analyzes a decently sized data pool.”

While neither study author feels comfortable calling what happened to their research outright censorship, Mr. McFadden was willing to entertain almost as dangerous a charge, “If a medical journal consciously publishes studies supporting only one side of an important political issue while denying publication to equally valid studies representing the other side, it’s nothing less than a form of passive fraud.”

The ACSH has been willing to take a controversial position on the ETS issue in the past, hotly contesting Mayor Bloomberg’s claim of New York’s ban saving thousands of lives. ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan has stated, “Our best estimate of the number of deaths prevented is somewhere between zero and a hypothetical ten to fifteen. There is no evidence that any New Yorker — patron or employee — has ever died as a result of exposure to smoke in a bar or restaurant.” (http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.215/news_detail.asp)

Her skepticism about radical smoking ban claims is supported by Boston University’s Dr. Michael Siegel, a well-known antismoking researcher who has recently become critical of extremists in the movement. His article on the new study referred to Helena as “shoddy science” while saying that the Kuneman/McFadden study “casts serious doubt on the conclusion” of the earlier work. (http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2007/07/study-of-trends-in-state-heart-attack.html)

Where will ACSH and the Kuneman/McFadden study go from here?

ACSH will probably find itself criticized for giving aid and support to those fighting against smoking bans. Messrs. Kuneman and McFadden plan to continue submitting their study to other medical journals. As the authors readily admit, it’s not that unusual for a study to be rejected by several journals before finding an ultimate home, but they add, “In this case, these particular journals had a uniquely important publication responsibility. Passive promotion of a fraudulent medical belief by professionals is no less of a sin simply because it's passive.”

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CONTACT INFORMATION:
Samantha Phillipe
The Smokers' Club, Inc.
PO Box 814
Center Conway, NH 03813
Fax: 207-925-6566
Email: info@smokersclub.com
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