Turning the air Green
Wednesday, September 8, 2010 As part of her campaign to save the planet, Caroline Lucas, the Green party's first ever MP, recently tabled this question: "To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will bring forward legislative proposals to create an offence of smoking in cars where children are present".
In March Lucas wrote on her blog:
The Green Party is the only party who are serious about improving the quality of the air, and stopping the 50,000 deaths a year that occur as a result of air pollution - a toll which makes air pollution as harmful as passive smoking.
50,000 deaths a year as a result of ETS? Where the hell did she get that figure from?!
Is she referring to Britain, Europe, the world? The former MEP doesn't say, but given the domestic nature of the post and the fact that it appears on a website dedicated to offering "A strong voice for Brighton, a strong voice for a fairer and greener country", most people will assume that she is talking about the UK.
In future I will take anything Ms Lucas says with a large dose of salt, and I would advise her constituents to do so too.
The answer, btw, to her parliamentary question on smoking in cars is due today. Watch this space.
Reader Comments (23)
Where did she get either figure from? More epidemiological madness from the far left. No credible data to support this statement but no doubt some moron in our apology for a press will quote her if she shouts loud enough and gets enough people "on message". I see billions of pounds worth of tax payer’s money being diverted into measuring air pollution from traffic. It is already happening in Loonyville California. I doubt anyone will even notice when they show it is a lot more dangerous than passive smoking. It is much easier to de-normalise 12 million people than to curtail the use of motor vehicles.
Na sorry Caroline i'm not going to live in a mud hut hut and scramble around in the dark for tasty weeds to eat.
Whilst keeping a watchfull eye out for large predators.
Our ancestors struggled for milennia to get away from that.
Looney.
Stop smoking in cars due to pollution? How can cigarettes possible compare to motor vehicles in terms of polution?
The air around smokers must be almost as pure as the driven snow compared to the air around motor vehicles!
Seriously, what planet do these morons come from and should we believe that those that are stupid enough to even entertain their ridiculous statements come from the same planet too, just to back them up?
Oohhh. I've been elected. Quick, say something profound.
"...........a result of air pollution - a toll which makes air pollution as harmful as passive smoking..............."
Doh!
Instant success!
You see, this is what I find irritating. Caroline Lucas has been in the House for all of five minutes and is already getting a question to the Health Secretary answered.
My previous MP, no matter how many times I asked him for answers to my questions about 'passive smoking', over the years since the ban, had never once had my concerns dealt with in this way.
Nor has there been a single MP sympathetic to our cause (to my knowledge) stand up and ask a question about the smoking ban…but Caroline Lucas can manage it almost immediately about smoking in cars – why?
Have posted this on Carolines blog:
"stopping the 50,000 deaths a year that occur as a result of air pollution - a toll which makes air pollution as harmful[sic] as passive smoking."
Caroline, I agree that Lewes road can get quite polluted, especially on hot windless days. I am a Brighton resident and drive along Lewes road a couple of time a week. When I drive my 3.5 litre V6 diesel mercedes-benz I often smoke at the same time. Do you believe that my lungs can resperate at the same rate and volume as my car? In other words what do you believe to be the greater threat to the residents of Lewes road; my tiny cigarettes or my great big mercedes-benz. The reason why I ask is that I am not aware that passive smoking kills anyone anywhere, let alone Lewes road. Can you tell us where you got this figure of 50,000 (equivalent) deaths caused by passive smoking from? Are we talking the entire human race or Lewes road?
Here we go again the, "moron test".
OK Caroline i'll sit in my car and chain smoke 20 cigarettes over a period of 3 hours.
It will get a bit smokey but i'm sure I will exit the vehicle alive.
You get in whichever ever car you wish ,put the exhaust pipe through the window ,yes you can leave it open a crack if you want.
You unfortunately will not exit the vehicle you will be dead in aproximately 5 minutes.
This is called the "smoke out a moron test".
Caroline Lucas is catching on fast.
She has learned from the other scaremongers in govt that the important thing is to get whatever spiel out on the air waves every now and again, no matter what junk the content contains, just to let people think that she's doing something to justify her massive salary.
The fact that people's minds are light years away from worrying or even thinking about smoking in cars as a priority issue, especially when most people are more concerned these days about putting food on the table , doesent matter in the least to these 'green' people.
As long as Caroline gets her bung from whatever big pharma or jobsworth outfit thats pulling her strings and her mug on the tv, thats all that matters.
I consider all Greens to be cultist tree huggers, I wouldnt even mind if they stuck to hugging trees but they never do and in my opinion should never be allowed into government in the first place.
Ms Lucas has her facts wrong Tim Yeo Chair of the Parliaments Environmental Committee said car pollution causes 5 times more deaths than SHS.
“Air pollution probably causes more deaths than passive smoking, traffic accidents or obesity, yet.”
Of course this is all junk science. Many of you may not know that after Dr. James Enstrom completed his 2003 paper on passive smoking he was paid by the Californian Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to investigate whether exposure to diesel fumes leads to a higher incidence of lung cancer. The EPRI were obviously looking for the right results, but they got none. Enstrom has now been fired by University California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as his "research is not aligned with the academic mission of the Department."
Air pollution, SHS and global warning, a dark veil has descended on science.
http://news.parliament.uk/2010/03/early-deaths-from-air-pollution-shame-uk-says-report/
She's quite the one for wild exaggeration is Lucas. She once said that "Air travel is as bad as stabbing someone in the street".
As for the written question, the reply will probably be similar to the one given to Caroline Flint on the same issue.
Oh Lord - help and save us from these nutters. How did so many weirdos get into our Parliament. Ah - I expect it's because of our dictatorial and corrupt voting system.
Thanks for the link DP
This was Anne Milton’s reply to Caroline Flint.
“The Department regularly receives correspondence from members of the public, health professionals and academics calling for the complete prohibition of smoking in cars carrying children because of the evidence of the damage to the health that results from exposure of children to second hand smoke in a confined space.
We are considering how best to tackle this issue in the context of our focus on public health. In the meantime we would strongly urge all smokers to stop smoking in the presence of children”.
I’m writing to ask her what form that evidence might take…I shall also ask her what volume of correspondence she has ever received which questions this so called evidence….amongst other things I want to her know about the relentless persecution of smokers.
Here is her contact address: anne@annemilton.com
I do hope that others will write to her too.
I am sick to death of reading about these nutmegs whom are paid the earth for coming out with so much bullshite !!
And since when is it the states duty to protect other peoples children i may ask???. Abused , beaten and downright cruelty yes i will accept that, but no other interference.
Frankly, if Caroline and her salad-brained comrades represent The Future, then I'm signing up with 'EXIT'.
Do people who vote Green REALLY know what they're voting for ?
Guess so................................................
I tried to add a comment on Lucas blog as it seems have others but no comments have appeared so I will put it here instead:-
You just lost ALL credibility with that last ridiculous statement.
"50,000 deaths a year that occur as a result of air pollution - a toll which makes air pollution as harmful as passive smoking".
As a 'green'. I would have thought that you would have SOME knowlege on the subject of smoking and its relationship to industrial pollution. but, it seems not. You merely follow the propaganda manufactured by anti-tobacco groups on behalf of polluting industry and a greedy pharmaceutical industry. The tobacco deception was originated by industry to protect their interests and it has allowed them to continue with their activities almost unchecked, knowing that any ill health they cause can be blamed on individual lifestyle choices.
The results of this deception are now pretty clear as the reduction in smoking has NOT resulted in any benefits to public health, in fact quite the reverse - almost ALL so called 'smoke related illness' is increasing at a rapid rate - millions quitting smoking has made no difference to improve the health of the nation!!
PRIMARY smoking is nowhere near as harmful as traffic pollution! Passive smoking is LESS harmful than drinking milk and in most cases the research is VERY CLEAR that passive smoking is BENEFICIAL to children for the most serious illnesses! As an example; check out the large European WHO study, authored by Boffetta et al. (it's on the internet)
Repeating anti-smoker lies that are easily discredited by a simple search on the internet does you no favours.
Start here for the 'passive smoking' deception;
http://www.velvetgloveironfist.com/index.php?page_id=33
and here for more detail;
http://fightingback.homestead.com/
Please check the FACTS, or at least try to verify the propaganda before making such statements - it makes you appear gullible and insubstantial and undermines your 'green' credentials.
Looking at that image of Caroline Lucas - the new Queen of San Fran East - I'm convinced that she and many of the other Greenies I've encountered are NOT of this World (Gaia).
If the BBC ever decided upon a re-make of 'Blake's Seven'................
On the other hand, it's probably just the Smiling Face of the New Fascism.
Yep, I'll go with that one.
PS:
I love dolphins, too !
I agree Martin V.
Caroline Lucas.
The smiling face of Eugenics ?
She looks like a right nutter.
The Greens always end up being the lap dogs for the main parties in govt and can always be relied upon to push through every disastrous vote to further their own ends.
The only safe place for them is in opposition.
Or at the bottom of a deep well.
"The smiling face of Eugenics .............."
On the money, Specky !
But, of course, the term 'Eugenics' is SO Last Century (and the one before that).
Instead, we tend today to talk about 'Population Control' - one of those things that sounds eminently reasonable, provided it doesn't apply to YOUR own plans to have children: condoms for the West (backed up by fluoridation, if you're lucky enough) but 'vaccination programmes' for all those irresponsible Black People in Africa who simply won't die fast enough from Malaria and AIDS, but who nonetheless KEEP requesting things like electricity and clean water.
The cheek of these people !
Our Caroline is a Paragon of Reasonableness, of course - compared to those in the Green Movement who would be quite happy to see the ENTIRE Human Race blasted into extinction (not before it's become smokefree, though: THAT would be immoral).
This would be silly, however.
Dolphins don't read George Monbiot .........................................
(ONE indication of their Superior Intelligence, I'll grant you).
What are the public asking?
Kin_Free
I left a comment on Caroline Lucas’s site asking her about the dubious nonsense concerning 50,000 deaths from ‘passive smoking’.
Comments however haven’t appeared on her site. When I further asked about this I got this reply today.
Dear xxxx,
Thank you for your query. For administrative reasons, under the terms of our comments policy, we treat blog questions as direct questions to Caroline, as if it were a direct approach and we do not post them as blog comments.
Caroline's team are copied in and will respond to the comments you raise.
Regards,
Simon
Carolinelucas.com Webteam
In other words comments will never be seen, and only those they deem fit will be answered.
They requested a read receipt. I replied that under the terms of my read receipt policy I only send them if my moderate comments are published. I also said “What’s the point of a comments section if comments aren’t seen by the general public?”
DavidR -
I believe it's called 'censorship'
At least it was in East Germany.
In the bad old days - before the Dawn of Freedom and Democracy........................
Dr Steven Johnson's remarks.
Martin you might find this person's remarks of interest.
I will say no more.