Slow Burn: The Great American Antismoking Scam (And Why It Will Fail)

By Don Oakley

"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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0961946539
• ISBN13: 9780961946531
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Eyrie Pr
• Length: 600 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

The Truth Hurts

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!

Heaven Protect Us from Those who Want to Protect Us!

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.

Solidly documented

Before you kick another smoker out of another public place, or banish another friend or relative to the woodshed, you owe it to yourself--and your notions of yourself as a rational, fair-minded human being--to read this book. You may disagree, here or there, with a few of Mr.Oakley's personal thoughts, but you can't deny his solidly documented facts. In the war against smoking in which truth has, indeed, been the first casualty, Mr. Oakley goes a far way towards bringing it back to life.

The best book on this subject for smokers OR nonsmokers!

The author has put together an incredible wealth of information gleaned from the internet, scientific studies, and newspaper articles and organised it with serious intent AND a sense of humor that makes it all readable!He makes a VERY convincing case for the argument that a lot of the "information" that we see on the media about smoking and secondhand smoke is actually manufactured propaganda designed to achieve a "goal" of eliminating smoking not only in America but around the whole world. He looks at things like the "400,000 killed by smoking" figure that we keep seeing in the news, and at the tactics of some of the extremist antismoking fanatics that have caused so much misery by splitting friends and families over false fears of harm from wisps of smoke.This book ISN'T just for smokers! If you're a nonsmoker who's concerned about the "danger" you're in from other peoples' smoke you should read this book as well... you might find yourself surprised at some of the lies you've been told!I think the thing I liked best about the book was its style: the author is SERIOUSLY annoyed (to put it mildly) at the Antismokers and their manipulations of the facts and of peoples' fears and it comes through on every page. His personal touch makes the book VERY readable despite the quantity of information that he's managed to jam into it.My only criticism would be the "cover art" of the book: it's too reminiscent of an Antismoking poster itself! (Though it DOES illustrate the title quite nicely... :> )

A top-notch book for smokers and non-smokers alike.

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.