Alabama Opinion Leaders Urged to Seek Truth in Secondhand Smoke Claims
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Kevin Godbee - Feb 9, 2011
- 2 min read
Birmingham, Alabama – The anti-tobacco forces in Alabama are gearing up to launch a well-orchestrated effort to spread their questionable claims regarding secondhand smoke, according to the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association. The IPCPR says the well-funded tobacco prohibitionists are buying breakfasts, lunches and dinners for Alabama opinion leaders in Dothan, Montgomery, Gadsden, Anniston, Huntsville, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Mobile this month in hopes they will pressure Alabama legislators to deprive business owners of their rights to decide for themselves whether or not to allow smoking in their establishments.
"Legislated smoking bans, for whatever reason, are unnecessary and inexcusable. They deprive business owners their right to make such determinations on their own. Beyond that, however, the anti-tobacco forces attempt to falsely justify their claims based on bad science, overreaching conclusions and ridiculous assumptions," said Chris McCalla, legislative director of the IPCPR, an association of some 2,000 tobacconists and related small business owners.
McCalla cited several examples of such misstatements expected to be raised at the various meal events.
"The United States Surgeon General’s office claims that ‘even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cardiovascular disease…’ and ‘inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke can also damage your DNA, which can lead to cancer.’ These statements are simply not true and there is certainly no evidence to support them," said McCalla.
McCalla also cited claims made by the University of Kentucky that "even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can trigger a heart attack…." and that "non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke for just 30 minutes experience hardening of the arteries," as claimed by the Florida Department of Health.
"Those are outright lies," he said. "If those or any other points are brought up by the anti-tobacco people, do not accept them outright without seeing the evidence on which the statements are based. For too long, the general public has been duped by wild accusations which, made often enough, are accepted without challenge."
McCalla added, "Business suffers and jobs are lost under legislated smoking bans. That was proven by the Federal Reserve Bank based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Also, safe levels of secondhand smoke have been set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and they are 25,000% safer than actual air quality levels normally found in bars and restaurants that allow smoking."
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Written by Kevin Godbee
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When I first started with the pipe as a quirky and precocious teen, the only tutelage I had at my disposal were scenes from old movies in which a well dressed chap would stick his pipe into a pouch, scoop tobacco into the bowl and press it down unceremoniously with his thumb. Then, with great flourish, he’d strike a match and light the thing with all manner of cinematic excess, puffing up vast clouds of smoke falling just short of completely obscuring his visage. While it may look good on film, it’s a terrible approach to actually enjoying the thing. Somehow, though, this “technique” seems to have survived in the contemporary vernacular, at least to some extent, even with bit-loads of information handily at our fingertips that should dissuade us from the practice. But, at the time, this misguided approach was all I had; it’s no wonder my early days of puffing were fraught with difficult lighting, harsh, bitter smokes and tongue bite, all culminating in a fireproof mass of ye old soggy dottle in the bottom of the bowl. Ultimately, the resulting frustration made me give up the pipe, at least for a while. While the idea of it was still very appealing, the practice of it was not. It wasn’t until a few years later when, still full of curiosity and romantic notions of pipe smoking, I wandered into a real tobacconist’s shop, and learned my “method” was a long way from the techniques that would bring me to any sort of pipe smoking bliss. So, after my poor start, and under the guidance of someone who actually seemed to know how to do it right, I was given the opportunity to approach the process anew, this time with much greater success. It was only because I was both perseverent, and fortunate to have a local shop staffed with knowledgeable people, that I’ve been able to enjoy the experience ever since. At least mostly… How many fledgeling pipe smokers have simply given up on an enjoyable pastime because of similar early mis-starts? Fortunately, today, it’s not hard to find helpful guidance at the press of a key or ten. But, at the same time, not all roads lead to Valhalla, and sometimes the advice offered might well be labeled with, “Here be dragons.” The other day, I came across a short video on-line in which a well-meaning tobacconist suggested packing a bowl of an “English” mixture “nice and tight.” Perhaps somewhat ironically, I was smoking, or trying to smoke a bowl that I’d filled on auto-pilot, packed too tightly, and not only was having the devil of a time trying to keep it lit, I really wasn’t enjoying the acrid smoke the tobacco issued during the brief periods in which it was actually burning. “No, no, NO!” I found myself muttering at my pipe, and at the figure on the screen, my protests joined by the guttural growling noises that sometimes accompany my discontent. Defiantly, I grabbed a pipe nail, shoveled out the dense, asbestos-like clog from the bowl, swabbed out the shank with a pipe cleaner, more out of habit than need since I hadn’t actually smoked enough of the mass to foul the shank, and started over, this time paying proper attention to what I was doing. (For as long as I’ve been doing this, I still screw it all up sometimes.) Much better. This got me thinking about a couple things that are so important to the maximal enjoyment of our pipes, yet not often enough discussed, namely how different tobaccos respond to variations in filling density, and moisture content; two separate but related parameters. Once I’d been shown the proper way to fill the bowl, or at least a proper way, everything had changed for me. I also began drying my tobacco down as a matter of course. Suddenly, there was greater cooperation between leaf and flame, the smoke was rich and flavorful, and it burned mostly to the bottom of the bowl with few relights. Given that, at the time, I smoked latakia mixtures almost exclusively, there didn’t seem to be a reason to explore beyond my “new” approach. It wasn’t until my attention turned in the direction of Virginia blends that I had to look a bit deeper. The same technique that worked so well for me with latakia mixtures resulted in bland, and often harsh smokes with Virginias. I attributed this to the tobaccos, convincing myself that I just didn’t like the stuff. At one of our pipe club meetings, I was talking with a friend who smoked Three Nuns exclusively. When he offered me a bowl. I thanked him, and told him that I just didn’t seem to get along well with Virginias, that they weren’t for me. “Maybe it’s the way you pack them. Here, let me fill your pipe for you.” I watched as he rubbed out a few coins to fine ribbons, moister than I was then accustomed to, and filled the bowl carefully in stages, pressing it tighter than I would have. Prepared for a nightmare, I was instead treated to a pipe dream. The tobacco smoldered slowly and almost continuously, delivering a rich, cool, sweet and delicious smoke. After that, I spent some time exploring the impact of these two variables, moisture content and packing density, on different mixtures and blends, always with similar results. Latakia mixtures, and to a lesser extent, those with a high percentage of oriental leaf, taste and smoke better when they’re on the dry side and the bowl is filled loosely, while Virginia blends tend to work best with a little more moisture and a denser fill. Burleys seem to work best somewhere in between, except for cube-cuts, which don’t like to be packed with much pressure at all. (Gravity fill, tap the bowl to settle the cubes. Repeat until full.) For such a simple act, pipe smoking is filled with undefined complexities! The point behind all this? Often […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 604. Our featured interview tonight is with Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and he is the former co-host of the podcast, Country Squire Radio, which ended their 10-year run last year. We’ll have JD with the “From the Country Squire” segment talking about all the new things happening at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, we’ll continue our audio tour of Brian’s pipe collection.
Before we begin, I should tell you: this tobacco review is being written by an A.I. Not the fancy new GPTs or their ilk; no, this is last century’s meat-and-bone, all-organic model. To be fair, a large part of what we call knowledge is merely the accumulated perceptions and impressions gathered from a life wandered through, synthesized into a spongy mass of what-it-is-that-we-think-that-we-know. The algorithm for this prompt is simple enough: pump thousands of bowls of smoldering plant matter into a gaping maw, cross-reference the chemical sensations with all other matter previously ingested or inhaled, sieve it all through the diffuse and fractal twin lens of memory and emotion, and churn out a panoply of adjectives that attempts to convey the sensations to someone who hasn’t experienced it yet. Odds are that a diligently trained monkey could succeed half the time; if this reviewer nears fifty-one percent then that would qualify as an unrivaled success. 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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 602. Our featured interview tonight is with Kevin the Hobbiton Piper. Kevin was originally on the show in August 2021. The Hobbiton Piper YouTube Channel has 9.24k subscribers and over 120 videos with pipe and tobacco reviews, box openings, food, drink, and more. Kevin’s interview was one of our early novice pipe smoker features, so we’ll check in and see how his pipe smoking and YouTube channel have progressed. At the top of the show, we’ll have an “Ask the Pipemaker” segment with pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
I’m not very religious, but I’m going to PRAY for the forces of truth, reason, and common sense in Alabama. I hope you do, too.
Makes me feel a little bit better.
Why didn’t Kevin or someone post this link at the forum? It wasn’t there yesterday.
My bad on that one Jimbo. Thanks for posting it over there too.
a Prayer for tolerance is definitely needed. Thanks so much for the article. A buddy of mine owns a business in Alabama. As a fellow smoker, he won’t be pleased.
Another growing case of paternalism by the state.
“It is a fact that no paternal government, whether ancient or modern, ever shrank from regimenting its subjects’ minds, beliefs, and opinions. If one abolishes man’s freedom to determine his own consumption, one takes all freedoms away. …” Ludwig Von Mises
“IPCPR says the well-funded tobacco prohibitionists are buying… Alabama opinion leaders”. Well, it’s time that “Big Tobacco” starts buying politicians. I’m not in favor of graft and corruption, but when I’m getting kicked in the groin and sucker-punched, all bets are off!