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Michael J. Calhoun, 61, a lawyer who was a top official in the Department of Health and Human Services during the presidency of George H.W. Bush and who later helped lead an AIDS foundation, died Feb. 24 of cancer of the thymus at his home in Mill Valley, Calif. . . .
In 1989, Mr. Calhoun became chief of staff to HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan and helped oversee a department of 65,000 employees. He led the first Cabinet-level tour of Africa to explore the impact of AIDS and was "widely credited with helping Sullivan get control of the department and his image," according to a 1990 article in the National Journal. "Calhoun, in addition to pulling together a formerly fractious HHS team, also gave Sullivan a piece of time-honored advice: lead with your strengths. He helped him home in to take a stand on public health issues such as prevention, nutrition and smoking."
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Gov. George E. Pataki's appointment of Antonia C. Novello, a former surgeon general, as state health commissioner in 1999 was seen as something of a coup for New York.
An appointee of President George H. W. Bush who was the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as surgeon general, Dr. Novello was praised even by the Clinton administration for her "vigor and talent" and promised to bring new attention to pediatric health.
But the New York State inspector general's office says that she turned her staff at the Health Department into her personal chauffeurs, porters and shopping assistants during her seven-year tenure, and has referred a criminal case, including potential felony charges, to the Albany County district attorney.
A report from the office of Inspector General Joseph Fisch to be released Tuesday depicts Dr. Novello as preoccupied with shopping and routinely abusive of her authority over employees, ordering them to buy her groceries, pick up her dry cleaning and even water her houseplants. . . .
As surgeon general, Dr. Novello, who followed the highly visible Dr. C. Everett Koop, was known for battling tobacco companies for marketing campaigns aimed at children and focusing on improving health outreach to minority communities.
Case in point: Kentucky.
This budget year, the state will take in nearly $300 million in cigarette taxes and settlement funds. But it will spend only about $4 million — a little more than 1% — on tobacco control programs.
Kentucky also has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on smoking in public, some of the stingiest Medicaid funding for programs to quit and one of the lowest cigarette taxes, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Lung Association.
Not surprisingly, Kentucky leads the nation with the highest adult smoking rate, 28%, and about 26% of Kentucky's high school students smoke in a nation where the high-school rate tumbled to 20% in 2007. These teens are tomorrow's addicts, and many will become tomorrow's victims of lung cancer and heart disease. . .
The lung association, which ranked all 50 states on their anti-smoking efforts, gave six others — Alabama, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia — failing grades across the board. In all but one (South Carolina), the high-school smoking rate tops the national average.
State leaders don't have to look far to see what a little money and a lot more commitment can do. In Maine, strong anti-smoking laws and a $2 tax per pack have helped cut the high-school smoking rate to 14% . . .
Money from the 1998 settlement will flow for at least 15 more years. If state leaders show the brains and gumption not to squander it, they can save millions of lives — and millions of dollars that go to treat smoking-related illnesses.
After President-elect Barack Obama fills out his cabinet appointments, he will turn to appointing new leadership for the government agencies with the power to regulate industry—a process that will likely bring an end to what has become known as the Bush administration’s “war on science.” . . . “The current FDA senior management blocked clinical trials, drove dedicated medical professionals out of the agency, and lined their pockets with outrageous bonuses,” Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) wrote to Obama last week. “A new Commissioner or Interim Commissioner must bring the Agency back to the forefront of science, integrity, and transparency.”
During the campaign, Obama vowed to allow the FDA to regulate tobacco. Giving the FDA new authority to regulate tobacco would vastly expand its power. While Stupak severely criticized Bush’s FDA chief, von Eschenbach, a spokesman from Stupak’s office said he had not pressed Obama to nominate anyone in particular. . . .
Obama is more likely to consider the Emanuel household for a highly qualified candidate for one of the government’s public health posts.
Emmanuel's brother, Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the nation’s leading bio-ethicists, is an oft-mentioned candidate for a presidential appointment.
Another possibility is that a "Friend of Barack", or FOB, could end up as the nation’s next surgeon general. Eric Whitaker was a graduate student at Harvard’s public health school when Obama attended the law school. Whitaker became the chief of the Illinois Department of Public Health and worked at the University of Chicago’s Hospital with Michelle Obama.
On this date: . . .
In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued the first government report saying smoking may be hazardous to one's health.
President-elect Barack Obama has asked neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to be U.S. surgeon general, a senior Democrat said on Tuesday.
Gupta has been "the Obama team's first choice" for the job, which would make the TV personality America's top doctor, said the Democrat who is familiar with efforts by Obama to staff his pending administration.
The Washington Post's online service, washingtonpost.com, first reported that Gupta had been offered the job, traditionally the U.S. top spokesman on matters of public health. . . .
Surgeon generals in the past have used the office as a bully pulpit to urge Americans to give up smoking, battle AIDS and tackle other healthcare concerns.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry issued a landmark report arguing the dangers of smoking in 196
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and CNN's chief medical reporter, is the leading contender to become the next surgeon general, a pick that will give the moribund office a higher profile but one that has received a mixed reaction among public health advocates.
CNN confirmed Tuesday that Dr. Gupta had been approached by the Obama transition team and discussed the job with President-elect Barack Obama late last year in Chicago. Dr. Gupta did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment.
According to people at CNN and in the Obama transition team, Dr. Gupta is likely to make a decision about taking the job within a few days.
In June 2006, the Surgeon General of the United States published a landmark report that concluded that secondhand smoke causes death and disease in non-smoking children and adults and that there is no safe level of its exposure. Until this report was published, many people refused to believe that secondhand smoke was dangerous. The surgeon general removed all doubt when he said, “The debate is over. The science is clear. Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance but a serious health hazard.” . . .
Clearly, secondhand smoke is no longer something that people can shrug off. It’s been classified as a class A carcinogen by the California EPA, and new research is constantly being published about how smoke-free laws protect public health and save lives. It’s time that Wyoming recognizes the severity of secondhand smoke and takes steps to eliminate secondhand smoke exposure in public places for the well-being of everyone.
They came to the Harvard Club the other day, to sit beneath the three great chandeliers in the great room off Commonwealth Avenue to remember a great man: Julie Richmond.
Dr. Julius B. Richmond, who died last July, lived 91 years because he had so much to do. And if he had lived another 91, he still wouldn't have had enough time.
All those neighborhood health clinics, in places like Southie, Roxbury, and Dorchester, in places like Mound Bayou, Miss., the ones that help people who don't have any money, they exist because of Julie Richmond.
The 25 million poor kids who got their bodies and minds fed over the last 40 years through something called Head Start did so because of Julie Richmond.
He was more than this nation's surgeon general, more than a gentle doctor, more than a fierce intellect, more than a distinguished professor. He was a mensch, and countless Americans are better off because of him.
Federal Judge Gladys Kessler blatantly ignored the rules of toxicology and epidemiology published in the Federal Judicial Center's Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (2nd Edition) in her decision . . .
Judge Kessler is a graduate of Cornell, then Harvard, who went to work as a labor and public interest lawyer and legislative aid for Democrat politicians in Congress and the Senate. . . .
Judge Kessler's decision in the 6 year long Racketeering case brought by the Federal Department of Justice against the tobacco industry tobacco case is an example of the grand overreach and tyrannical approach that characterizes activist judges when they have an American industry in their gun sights and a quasi-religious grudge. . . .
Judge Kessler ignored the insightful opinion of Judge William Osteen in 1998 that nullified the EPA's research on second hand smoke as scientific misconduct. . . .
Judge Kessler in contravention of the Osteen opinion, ruled:
* The tobacco companies were guilty of racketeering under the criminal code for asserting that secondhand smoke and low tar and nicotine cigarettes have less toxic effects on human health. . . .
Judge Kessler refused to allow the defendant tobacco companies at trial to show the clear-cut evidence that secondhand smoke even in the worst of circumstances is the equivalent of one cigarette a day and that no research has ever shown a health effect from such a low exposure. Even worse, in making her sweeping decision, Judge Kessler has decided to criminalize research that she disagrees with and advocacy by or for people of whom she disapproves.
The Court received arguments and pleadings in the case filed by the United States that branded as a criminal conspiracy the writings of columnists, researchers, and scientists who disagreed with the claims of anti-smoking activists. Epidemiologists whose research was published in peer reviewed journals and who found results that conflicted with the EPA position were implicated as conspirators by the Kafkaesque opinion of Judge Kessler. . . .
One might ask if Judge Kessler includes Judge Osteen as complicit
We at the Hawaii Smokers Alliance have filed a formal complaint with the Office of Research Integrity, US Department of Health and Human Services against the misleading statements and reporting of conclusions held in the Surgeon General's 2006 ETS/SHS report citing "No risk-free level of exposure to SHS/ETS".
We are committed to holding those who have chosen to misinform or misrepresent information to the general public accountable for such reckless and egregious behavior. . . .
The following is the complaint as filed. . . .
Several of his comments by the Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service appear to have made up the conclusions and results of his report when he reported those results to the public.
We also note that the press release beings with, “U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona today issued a comprehensive scientific report which concludes that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.” Clearly, the conclusions of the 2006 Surgeon General’s report are a far cry from this dramatic statement, which means that the Surgeon General misreported the actual conclusions to the public. . . .
We also reiterate the words of Dr. Michael Seigel[6]:
The rest of the story, then, is that the Surgeon General's misrepresentation of the scientific evidence regarding secondhand smoke in his own report has led to a gross distortion of the science to the public. This has occurred almost a year and a half following the release of the initial report. And it is likely to continue to occur.
In June, 2006, then Surgeon General Carmona released his report titled "The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke". Since that date, his report has drawn criticism from Scientists and Epidemiologists worldwide.
Four separate groups have filed complaints with the Office of Research Integrity, Health and Human Services against Ex-Surgeon General Carmona's 2006 Report.
Opponents of Ohio Bans filed a complaint against the scientific misconduct (manipulation of research) of the economic assessment/impact of smoking bans. According to Carmona's report, smokefree policies do not harm business. Two thirds of the studies in Carmona's report were either authored or co-authored by Stanton Glantz, Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, who is not an economist. He and his university have profited heavily by anti-tobacco funding and grants. Absolutely no studies or reports conducted by economists or trade organizations were cited in Carmona's report, although many sources were available at the time.
For example, the highly regarded Deloitte and Touche reported a study for the National Restaurant Association study (2004), the Ridgeway Economic Associates New York Nightlife Association/Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association Study (05/12/2004) . . .
Dr. Michael Siegel is a prominent doctor specializing in Preventative Medicine and Public Health. . . .
Other articles such as "Science and Secondhand Smoke: the Need for a Good Puff of Skepticism" by Sidney Zion (Skeptic, Volume 13, Number 3, 2007), "Where's the Consensus on Second Hand Smoke?" by Joseph Bast of Heartland Institute, and "Did Carmona Read His Own Report?" by Jacob Scullum with Reason Magazine 06/29/2006 http://www.reason.com/blog/show/114497.html are but a small representation of the articles that give a glimpse of how damaging the epidemic of anti-smoking is.
1878: Eighty-six years before the U.S. surgeon general issues a report confirming the dangers of smoking tobacco, a letter from English physician Charles R. Drysdale condemning its use appears in The Times of London.
Drysdale, the senior physician to the Metropolitan Free Hospital in London, had already published a book on the subject, Tobacco and the Diseases It Produces, when he wrote the letter that described smoking as "the most evident of all the retrograde influences of our time."
Drysdale had been on an anti-smoking crusade since at least 1864, the year he published a study documenting the effects on young men of consuming ¾ ounce of tobacco daily. That study reported cases of jaundice, and at least one subject having "most distressing palpitations of the heart." . . .
He also warned against exposure to second-hand smoke: "Women who wait in public bar-rooms and smoking-saloons, though not themselves smoking, cannot avoid the poisoning caused by inhaling smoke continually. Surely gallantry, if not common honesty, should suggest the practical inference from this fact." . . .
Though physicians and scientists understood there were numerous health hazards associated with the practice, the number of smokers increased dramatically in the first half of the 20th century. Thank you, Madison Avenue. Thank you, Hollywood.
The turning point probably came in 1957, when then-Surgeon General Leroy Burney reported a causal link between smoking and lung cancer. It was left to Burney's successor, Luther Terry, to lower the boom. . .
And to think it only took 86 years.
The Senate wants a total ban, while the House is prepared to accept some key exemptions like cigar bars, smoke shops and other logical places. If the House can't get its version through, it will fall back on the Senate version, and we will have a total smoking ban by the end of this current session.
There are some 85 members of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association in Michigan who may well be put out of business with such a total ban.
They are, for the most part, mom-and-pop businesses that sell premium cigars to their adult friends and neighbors. They are pillars of the communities they serve, they provide thousands of jobs and pay millions of dollars annually in payroll, sales and excise taxes.
Unfortunately, Michigan legislators and the general public are being deceived by the well-funded anti-smoking organizations into believing what they hear about second-hand smoke.
They need to read the 2006 Surgeon General's report, which clearly concludes that second-hand smoke should not be considered a legitimate health or environmental hazard. The report states no less than 108 times on its 707 pages that the evidence is inconclusive regarding the health aspects of second-hand smoke.
Even the Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn't regard second-hand smoke an environment hazard.
According to Chris McCalla, legislative director of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association, his organization has learned that the Michigan state legislature will likely reopen debate on a proposed statewide smoking ban based on allegedly erroneous information provided by well-funded anti-smoking forces.
Michigan's State Representatives and Senators have been deadlocked on a proposal for several months with each preferring their own version of such a ban. McCalla believes the two chambers are working to approve a statewide smoking ban by the end of this current session.
"IPCPR members are owners and employees of neighborhood smoke shops across Michigan, throughout the United States and the world where premium, handmade cigars are sold to adult consumers," said McCalla. "Their customers are friends and neighbors who enjoy the pleasures of a good cigar... and they are voters," he added.
McCalla noted that most cigar stores are family-owned small businesses led by mom-and-pop operators who are pillars of the communities they serve, providing thousands of jobs and paying millions of dollars annually in payroll, sales and excise taxes.
According to McCalla, Michigan legislators and the general public are being deceived by the well-funded anti-smoking organizations into believing what they hear about second-hand smoke.
"They need to read the 2006 Surgeon General's Report which clearly concludes that second-hand smoke should not be considered a legitimate health or environmental hazard. Biased media reports, slanted statements by anti-tobacco groups and even deliberately erroneous press releases from the Surgeon General's office contradict the actual findings of the Report," he said.