Things you didn’t know about smoking. Part 3.

Smoking Does Not Increase Risk Of Receding Gums

Smokers are not at higher risk of developing receding gums than are non-smokers.
Present data do not support the hypothesis that smokers are at greater risk, say researchers in Heidelberg, Koblenz and Münster, Germany.
The researchers noted that smoking is a major risk factor for destructive periodontal disease. There was only limited information, however, about how smoking affected people with minimal periodontal destruction.
To assess the development of gingival recession, the researchers made four assessments over six months of clinical periodontal conditions in 61 systemically healthy volunteers aged 19-30 years. Of these, 30 smoked at least 20 cigarettes a day and 31 did not smoke.
At the outset, about half of both groups had receding gums at one or more sites.
There was severe gum recession of more than two millimetres in more than three times as many non-smokers (23 percent) as among smokers (7 percent). Further gum recession developed during the study.
The risk of recession did not seem to be influenced by smoking status once statistical adjustments had been made for various factors. These included periodontal probing depth, recession at baseline, how often the volunteers brushed their teeth, their sex, their tooth type and the site of periodontal disease.

Read this Mr dentist of mine.

Religion of Peace. Don’t make me laugh.

Why is it that the MSM and especially the BBC never show scenes like this? First they insult the Royal Anglian Regiment. Then you hear them demanding that those who are not of their so called Religion should leave their towns or areas. Their towns? Since when has a group of religious fanatics been so pampered to?

Wankers of Islam

I presume that wanker Cameron has seen this? Of course the spineless shit will just hope that it’ll go away.

H/T to G.O.T

Another Climate Change scientist repenteth.

More and more scientists are trying to jump of the slow moving supertanker before  the propellers fall off.

A top East European climatologist, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with UN global warming colleagues, jumps a sinking ship as ocean data signals a cooler climate.
Dr. Lucka Kajfež Bogataj left cold clear water between herself and her former UN shipmates by declaring that rising levels of airborne carbon dioxide probably don’t cause global temperatures to rise. The news scuppers hopes for a change in fortune for the beleaguered UN climate agency. Their doomed ‘ship,’ the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been sailing on an ill wind ever since it was struck by that Climategate ‘torpedo’ last year.

They’re taking to the lifeboats  now, faster than you can say “Titanic”.

She’s now saying what most of us have suspected.

Buried in an otherwise drab study on paleo- and proxy methods, Dr. Bogataj admitted to what skeptics have long been saying and what the ice core proxy data shows: that rises in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) are proven to mostly, if not always, occur AFTER rises in temperature.

Do go and read the whole article as it appears that there are even more scientists queuing for a place in the lifeboats. It’s over at Climate realists.

Things you didn’t know about smoking. Part 2

Shocker: 'Villain' nicotine slays TB

Nicotine might be a surprising alternative someday for treating stubborn forms of tuberculosis, a University of Central Florida researcher said Monday.
The compound stopped the growth of tuberculosis in laboratory tests, even when used in small quantities, said Saleh Naser, an associate professor of microbiology and molecular biology at UCF.
Naser said nicotine worked better than about 10 other substances also tested. If it proves itself in further study, people might swallow capsules of nicotine or get intravenous doses to stave off their TB in the future.
It could be a potentially white-hat role for one of medicine's great villains. Most scientists agree that nicotine is the substance that causes people to become addicted to cigarettes and other tobacco products.
"Can you imagine if we can get something useful out of it?" said Naser, who presented his study to members of the American Society for Microbiology, which is meeting this week at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. "It's the best thing I've seen to date. It shows there is some hope that this substance we've hated for so long might be formulated in one way or another to fight infectious diseases."
Naser's research team uses naturally occurring substances taken from the jungles of Vietnam to the swamps of Florida in search of ones that might fight disease. He was working with tobacco plants when Naser noticed they were showing some effectiveness in quashing TB.
Unsure what specific component was at work, he decided to test nicotine because it is the most-studied compound in the tobacco plant. He got lucky. First nicotine killed regular tuberculosis, and then harder, drug-resistant strains that will not succumb to the usual medicines.
It worked even when used in doses smaller than what's found in a single cigarette. Naser said such small quantities are not likely to cause addiction. But no one is suggesting that people with TB take up the potentially deadly habit of smoking.
Tuberculosis is highly treatable in most cases but still requires at least six months of antibiotics. When people fail to finish their medications, they can develop dangerous forms of the disease that no longer respond to the standard drugs.
There were no cases of drug-resistant TB in Orange County last year, but statewide, the troublesome forms amount to about 1 percent of all cases, said Graydon Sheperd, chief of the bureau of TB and refugee health at the Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee.
The contagious disease is caused by a bacteria that is spread through the air when an infected person coughs. There were 1,281 cases of newly diagnosed TB in the state in 1999. Doctors say they welcome the search for more tools to treat the ailment.
"The biggest problem we have with TB is compliance. People don't want to take their medications, and we can end up with something that takes even longer to treat," said Dr. Boubker Naouri, TB program manager for the Orange County Health Department. "If we can have better drugs that work faster, it would be a big help."

Those damned leaves again.

A commuter train from Charing Cross slid for a record two-and-a-half miles because of leaves on the line.

And that’s my line. You can see why I avoid trains like the plague.

Justice?

Remember the case of the custody Sargent who was convicted of actual bodily harm after throwing a 59 year old woman to the floor of a cell?

The officer was found guilty of causing her actual bodily harm and jailed for six months in September.

Sgt Andrews spent six days in prison, but was released on bail pending the appeal at Oxford Crown Court.

Mark Andrews spent six days in jail after being convicted

A Wiltshire policeman convicted of assaulting a woman in custody has been cleared on appeal.

The appeal judge, Mr Justice Bean, said after the four-day hearing he was satisfied that Sgt Andrews did not intend to throw Ms Somerville into the cell and that injuries she suffered were probably caused by the door frame.

Justice. Pah. I’m moving to Eastern Europe.

Things you didn’t know about smoking. Part 1

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study adds to the previously reported evidence that cigarette smoking protects against Parkinson's disease. Specifically, the new research shows a temporal relationship between smoking and reduced risk of Parkinson's disease. That is, the protective effect wanes after smokers quit.

"It is not our intent to promote smoking as a protective measure against Parkinson's disease," Evan L. Thacker from Harvard School of Public Health emphasized in comments to Reuters Health. "Obviously smoking has a multitude of negative consequences. Rather, we did this study to try to encourage other scientists...to consider the possibility that neuroprotective chemicals may be present in tobacco leaves."

As reported in the March 6th issue of Neurology, Thacker and colleagues analyzed data, including detailed lifetime smoking histories, from 79,977 women and 63,348 men participating in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. During about 9 years of follow-up, 413 subjects developed definite or probable Parkinson's disease.

Compared to people who had never smoked and were considered to have "normal" Parkinson's disease risk, former smokers had a 22-percent lower risk of Parkinson's disease and current smokers had a 73-percent lower risk.

"The results were similar for men and women, and were also similar to the results of studies by many other researchers looking at the same topic," Thacker noted.

In former smokers, more years of smoking, fewer years since quitting, more cigarettes per day, and a higher total amount of lifetime smoking were all related to a lower Parkinson's disease risk. The researchers also found that the duration of smoking and the time since quitting influenced risk more than the average daily amount of smoking.

"A 30 percent to 60 percent decreased risk of Parkinson's disease was apparent for smoking as early as 15 to 24 years before symptom onset, but not for smoking 25 or more years before onset," the investigators report.

"The results of our study," Thacker said, "can probably be explained by something in cigarettes -- most likely in the tobacco itself -- actually protecting people against getting Parkinson's disease. That would be the simplest explanation that makes the most sense."

Studies to determine if, in fact, there are neuroprotective compounds in tobacco are warranted, the researchers say. "The observation that smokeless tobacco users also have a lower risk of Parkinson's disease suggests that the most likely candidates are not compounds generated by combustion, but rather constituents of the tobacco leaves."

Just a thought

I was just thinking about my time in a para military organisation. (I can’t tell you which, otherwise I’d have to shoot this blog).

It was a while ago and my ship was out in Angola as part of the peace keeping mission at the time.

We’d been sent down  to provide early support for a composite battalion of the British Army, to assist in a settlement of power in the country.

Well I usually keep my head down, and don’t volunteer for anything that might curtail my sojourn in the Officers bar and consequentially was distressed to be summoned to the Captains cabin at short notice, with no idea why.

Conversation goes like this.

Captain: FE. I want you to liaise with the Royal Engineers.

FE: Wouldn’t  another younger, keener, promotion seeking engineer, be a better choice. (FE remembers his time carrying out Hurricane relief. FE’s bar time was severely curtailed).

Captain:  No FE, you’re the man for the job (Add your own claptrap puff piece if you wish), so I’ve nominated you.

FE: Yes Sir. (Under breath remark. You Cunt)

Captain: You’ve full authority.

And here’s the rub. I actually fitted in well with the Royal Engineers that I was liaising with. Being a Marine engineer who has to adapt to any problem, I found kindred spirits in theatre. I was amongst people who used the information available to them and made things happen.

And they taught me all sorts of useful skills.

1. Very important. How to use and strip an SA80 assault rifle.

2. JCB operation.

3. How to use and strip an AK47 assault rifle. (In case I lost the SA80).

4. How to build a bar out of an old container in one day.

5. How to make safe an anti-personnel mine. (Done with some trepidation on my part).

6. How to defuse a BOMB.

7. Too old. Can’t remember 7. Oh yes, it’s coming back to me. The safe way of blowing a door off.

Of course the only really useful one in the UK is number 3. You never know when you might have to prize a cash machine out of a wall.*

*To the Plod. That was a joke.

Junk science and the BBC

There’s a good article over in the Telegraph written by James Delingpole on his blog. In it he commends a letter to the BBC from Andrew Montford of Bishop Hill blog, and Tony Newbery of the Harmless Sky blog. They have submitted a damning document questioning how the BBC’s position on climate change came about
Delingpoles blog in support of their letter is worth a read.

More anti-smoking Miscellany

I thought the last post of mine was daft, concerning that fact that pregnant mums who smoked were likely to give birth to criminals.

Now “experts” believe that second hand smoke makes you deaf. Well it didn’t affect my kids. They can hear my wallet open from 300 miles.

People who are exposed to the second-hand smoke from others' cigarettes are at increased risk of hearing loss, experts believe.

Doctors already know that people who smoke can damage their hearing.

The latest study in the journal Tobacco Control, involving more than 3,000 US adults, suggests the same is true of passive smoking. (Emphasis mine)

Of course it is the usual culprits who are spouting this drivel. Tobbacco Control. As is usual in the above quoted paragraph, they come out with the weasel words, believe and suggests. In other words hypothesis and not proof.

And they continue

This revealed that people exposed to second-hand smoke were far more likely to have poorer hearing than others, and to a degree where they might struggle to follow a conversation in the presence of background noise.

Now. I’ve been smoking for over forty years, and a fair bit of that time worked in Engine rooms where the levels of noise are extreme. How come my hearing is not reduced to nothing then?

And they finish with this.

"Before you next light up a cigarette, consider how it could impact not only on your own long-term hearing but your friends' and relatives' too."

And I’ll finish with this you miserable control freaks. Just Bugger off.

On a final note, the pic accompanying the article is this.

Please will someone help the poor little Cheeeeldren?