"Slow Burn" is a highly personal but thoroughly documented journey by the author, Don Oakley, to find out the truth behind the supposed medical facts undergirding the nation's three-decades-long crusade against smoking. He begins with a searching critique of the 1964 surgeon general's report, which set the crusade into motion, and details the reservations of the surgeon general's advisory committee regarding the seven weak studies which formed the basis for the famous warning that "Cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficent importance in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action." It was that "action"--or, more accurately, actions--flowing from the report over the past three decades that persuaded the author, a retired newspaper editorial writer, to undertake his book. A smoker in good health for 53 years, he was appalled at the hysteria infecting America as a result of an endless series of assaults against smoking and those who choose to indulge in it. In the course of his research, Oakley acquired, and in "Slow Burn" gives the reader, a basic knowledge of epidemiology and the uses--and especially the misuses--of statistics. The book examines the most important studies into smoking since the 1964 report and reveals that many if not most of them are fatally flawed by deep antismoking bias on the part of researchers who are supported by abundant antismoking grant money, much of it extorted from smokers themselves. At the same time he reports on numerous studies exonerating smoking that the public has never heard about. The book is also infused with great humor as the author pokes fun at some of the more ludicrous claims and almost superstitious beliefs surrounding smoking, beliefs that unfortunately are entertained by many in the medical establishment as well as by the lay public. "Slow Burn" is, however, an utterly serious work. Oakley realizes that any attempt by a nonscientist to challenge "what everybody knows" about smoking will be greeted with widespread disbelief. But as he asks in Chapter 2, even if everything said about smoking is true, is what we as a nation are doing on the basis of it wise and necessary? As detailed in subsequent chapters, what we HAVE done has been to ostracize and discriminate against a quarter of the population, to villainize an industry and applaud its plundering by state attorneys general and the plaintiffs' bar and, above all, to countenance thie prostitution of science and the corruption of the nation's legal system--all in the politically correct cause of a "smoke-free" society. Because of this, in a daring and provocative conclusion, Oakley states that "The 1964 Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service is one of the most insidiously harmful documents ever foisted upon a gullible public." "Slow Burn" is not written primarily for smokers (although they have been taken in by the Great American antismoking scam along with everyone else). Nonsmokers who value both truth and fairness will find the book an eyeopener and an alarm-bell warning about what the excesses of the antismoking crusade could ultimately cost them in terms of diminished personal freedom and responsibility.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Don Oakley is an author and a former editorial writer for Newspaper Enterprise Association in Cleveland, Ohio, and Scripps Howard News Service in Washington,D.C.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heaven Protect Us from Those who Want to Protect Us!,
By Allan from San Francisco (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Slow Burn: The Great American Antismoking Scam (And Why It Will Fail) (Paperback)
Though written in a conversational and highly accessible tone, this exhaustively-researched book exposes the wildly misleading conclusions drawn by the anti-tobacco fanatics, based on their junk science "studies" and other misinformation. One of the book's most useful revelations is that the "400,000 deaths from tobacco per year" factoid, which "everybody know is true," did not come from medical records or post-mortem examinations, but is rather a statistical projection that resides in a computer! It is no better and no worse than the assumptions upon which it is based, but any statistician can tell you that mere correlations do not prove causality. (For example, the fact that more people die in hospitals than anywhere else does not "prove" that hospitals are the leading "cause" of death!) I am a lifelong non-smoker, but when I hear the anti-tobacco nuts raving, I don't mind telling you that I feel personally threatened. Whose life is it, anyway? I'd like to tell them to keep their damned hands off MY health! For those who feel as I do, this book is a must.
25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A top-notch book for smokers and non-smokers alike.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Slow Burn: The Great American Antismoking Scam (And Why It Will Fail) (Paperback)
So much has been written about the smoking controversy, I thought I would just scan Don Oakley's book, but soon found myself reading every word and not wanting to put it down. He writes in a conversational style that makes you feel he's speaking personally to you, as he would in a letter to a friend.Oakley's natural wit and entertaining style make the facts that he presents throughout the book anything but boring. You will laugh and sometimes shake your head at some of the stories he tells of real events, along with letters and e-mails from real people. He describes the antismoking crusade as "a monumental scam that the antismoking establishment has perpetrated on a trusting public." Oakley has done his homework and has left no stone unturned as he shows how science and statistics can be twisted to fit a political agenda. This book is not only for smokers but also for those non-smokers who remain skeptical about such things as the "deadliness" of secondhand smoke. It's a must-read for anyone who values truth and fairness and scientific integrity.
31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Truth Hurts,
By "judy6122" (Fort Collins, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Slow Burn: The Great American Antismoking Scam (And Why It Will Fail) (Paperback)
This is an extremely well-researched and put together history and critique of the Anti-Smoking Crusade. It is a long and heavy book, but every page is interesting reading. Every comment and fact the author shares is either marked as personal experience or he has the documentation to back it up. He doesn't try to sell anyone on the idea that smoking is good for you; he is only trying to point out how extreme and over the top the actions of the Anti-Smoking Crusade have been. He looks at it from several angles, including the cost to our society of degrading and humiliating a sizable percentage of the population to satisfy a few fanatics. I thought I knew a lot about the phony EPA second-hand smoke studies, but I was wrong. This book fleshes it out in more detail, and gives the back story on the lawsuits against the tobacco companies in Florida. The truth will shock and possibly even hurt you, as it did me. I have always respected the law and the health authorities. When you find out the truth, it shakes the foundations of what you thought you knew about our culture and way of life. This book was published in 1999 and Mr. Oakley could see the War on Fat coming even back then. In mid-2002, I can see the same pattern emerging to a T (the similarity of the Anti-Smoking Crusade and the War on Fat are not coincidental). I fear for the society we are becoming, schizophrenic, trying to be politically correct and oh so tolerant and a tyrannical nanny state all at the same time. Heaven help us all!
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