Tobacco.org

LETTER: And what of opium chewing?  

I am surprised that Islami and colleagues did not also collect information on the local habit of chewing the tarry residues from opium smoking, which Professor Thomas Hewer established in the 1970s as the cause of raised rates of oesophageal cancer in the region.1 Opium tar was chewed mainly by those too poor to afford opium itself.

But then this finding got Tom Hewer into considerable hot water with the Shah: perhaps the current regime would be equally antipathetic to such a result?

Jump to full article »