Privileged approach: medical anthropology (in the name of hundred millions of voiceless people across the world demanding respect for their ancient popular daily culture). Keywords: public health; cultural heritage; toxicity; health effects; popular culture; material culture; immaterial culture; museography; peace studies; gender issues; (biomedical) orientalism; (biomedical) neo-orientalism.
Scientific (university) background (biology, physics, chemistry and social sciences). Post-graduated in Tobacco Science (University of Paris, 1998)(Best thesis). Author of a 420-page 850-substantial bibliographical footnote comprehensive transdisciplinary doctoral thesis, sealing 5 years of research and bridging between social and biomedical sciences (Summa cum laude [Highest honours]. Viva examiners: Pr Pierre Bouvier (CNRS, Univ. Paris X); Pr Robert Molimard (Univ. Paris XI-XII & President Societe Tabacologie); Pr François Georgeon, EHESS & CNRS, Paris). Taught the full spectrum science of water-filtered tobacco smoke to French doctors (University of Paris XI-XII, 2006-2010). Scientific collaborator of various research centres in Asia, Africa and Europe (important: all independent from both pharmaceutical and tobacco industries).
> 2015: NEW CONCISE LIST OF PUBLICATIONS on ResearchGate
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH (author or chief co-author) related to the issue of ancient pipes ONLY:
Main finding: the oriental pipe as the oldest tobacco harm reduction technique of the world (e.g., see also cancer studies 2007-8; +150, 000 views on main site only). Note: harm reduction = making things LESS harmful, NOT harmless.
Note: Co-inventor of an oriental pipe with simplified lighting (95% reduction of CO, PAHs, etc.)(with overheating control stick keeping mixture at bay from heating source). Download full description with drawing.
> Two transdisciplinary research Books: (1) Tout savoir sur le narguile : societe, histoire, culture et sante [English > see there: Everything about hookahs: societies, culture, history, health] (Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2007, 256 pages); (2) " Le narguile : Anthropologie (Paris, L'Harmattan, 1997, 266 pages). "La valeur intrinsèque d'un livre ne dépend pas de l'importance du sujet (sans quoi les théologiens l'emporteraient de loin) mais de la manière d'aborder l'accidentel et l'insignifiant, de maîtriser l'infime. L'essentiel n'a jamais exigé le moindre talent" (Cioran: "L'inconvénient d'être né")
> First world studies on: Hookah Smoking and Cancer aetiology [2008]; its Radiological Hazards [2008] and its ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) (Passive Smoke) [2009] including Public Health recommendations; the methodological critique of the WHO flawed report on "“waterpipe"" smoking [2006] prepared by 20 WHO top tobacco experts (most of them from the USA). The 2 first sentences of this report contain 2 errors... Pioneering study on Trace Elements (heavy metals) in various oriental smoking mixtures [2014] (see list further down).
> First measurements of alveolar and ambient CO (Carbon Monoxide) in smoking lounges in 1997. Issued the first Public Health recommendations in this respect (Alcoologie 1999; republished Epidemiology&Public Health 2007).
> First technical and critical comprehensive reviews (1998, 2000, 2004, 2005-6) on this issue: Tetralogy on hookah and health .
> Methodological critique (2009) of the WHO & US American University of Beirut’s flawed smoking robot (behind the global confusion: e.g. above WHO flawed report, one 30-minute hookah session = up to 450 cigarettes...)[BBC story] and its smoking topography ( topography ). Levels of toxic chemicals skyrocket and vary up to +70 times and even hundred times between two "studies"… Read critique in British Journal of Cancer
2013. Times are a changing... Interestingly, the new creed is that “hookah smoking carries many of the same health risks and has been linked to many of the same diseases caused by cigarette smoking” (American Lung Association). Not only is such a statement in full contradiction with the substance of the ««waterpipe»» "scientific" literature over the last half decade (1 pipe equals up to 450 cigs...), but is it also totally antiscientific and even more deceitful than the previous ones.
2013-2016: Cutting-edge transdisciplinary psycho-pharmacology / medical anthropology research by international team: 1) exposing another great scientific fallacy: Hookah (shisha, narghile) use as a gateway to cigarette smoking ; 2) "The buzz effect and its model : from nicotine receptors to carboxyhemoglobin levels" . Related research: 3) "Hookah initial use among teenagers: a "vaccine" against cigarette smoking? Public health & macroeconomical implications".
PLAGIARISM: An extensive part of this work has been plagiarised (e.g., non exhaustive list): in France in 2007 (by Bertrand DAUTZENBERG (Universite Paris VI and OFT) and Jean-Yves NAU (journal Le Monde and Revue Medicale Suisse); in 2013 in the United Kingdom (by Olivia MAYNARD and coll., Nov. issue of the “Addiction” Journal headed by Robert WEST); in the USA and Lebanon in 2015 (by Ghazi ZAATARI, US-American University of Beirut and WHO TobReg , in the March issue of the “Tobacco Control” journal. Note: this individual was the main co-author's partner and "peer-reviewer" of the WHO flawed report on ««waterpipe»» published 10 years ago. In their biased pseudo-scientific "review" of health studies, GZ and his colleagues have paraphrased entire paragraphs of our early comprehensive Tetralogy on Hookah & Health published in Tabaccologia in 2005 (particularly Part 3). Action will be taken as there have been precedents of such unethical scientific misconduct among Lebanese researchers (see further down). Meanwhile, see here a global response to such behaviours.
Potential competing interests: see relevant paragraph right at the end of this recent publication (The Open Medical Chemistry Journal).
Other : Peer-reviewer of manuscripts for several journals: e.g. "Prevalence and Predictors of Hookah Use in US Air Force Military Recruits" (Addictive Behaviors, Spring 2015).
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If in a hurry, please skip below QUOTATIONS (about meditation on public health and culture)
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Healthy Mind : "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society... [Ce n'est pas un signe de bonne santé (mentale) que d'être bien adapté à une société terriblement malade]"(Jiddu Krishnamurti) J.K.). "Just as every drop of the ocean carries the taste of the ocean, so does every moment carry the taste of eternity."[Tout comme chaque goutte a le goût de l'océan, chaque instant porte en lui celui de l'éternité](Nisargadatta M.)
"The opposite of Love is not hatred.../i> /b>[ L'Amour n'est pas le contraire de la haine].
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Healthy Peace : "The UN [United Nations]Has Failed to Protect Syrians from War and Hunger. Now it’s Telling them to Stop Smoking [their Peace Pipe] "!"( Robert Fisk (The Independent): "Bizarre, weird, unprecedented. It's rarely you can call the UN all three. But I did get the April Fool's Day feeling when I read about the World Health Organisation's latest warning to Syrians: they must stop smoking. Not just cigarettes but even the nargileh, the shisha pipe, upon which generations of Arabs have puffed away in war and peace"…)
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Healthy Air : Qualité de l'air… Il y a 100 ans, Jack London nous quittait ": "L'imposant édifice de la société qui se dresse au-dessus de ma tête ne recèle plus aucun délice à mes yeux. Ce sont les fondations de l'édifice qui m'intéressent. Là, je suis content de travailler, la barre à mine à la main, épaule contre épaule avec les intellectuels, les idéalistes et les ouvriers qui ont une conscience de classe - et nous donnons de temps en temps un bon coup de cette barre à mine pour ébranler tout l'édifice. Un jour, lorsque nous aurons un peu plus de bras et de barres à mine, nous le renverserons, lui et toute sa pourriture et ses morts non enterrés, son monstrueux égoïsme et son matérialisme abruti. Puis nous nettoierons la cave et construirons une nouvelle habitation pour l'humanité. Là, il n'y aura pas de salon, toutes les pièces seront lumineuses et aérées, et l'air qu'on y respirera sera propre, noble et vivant. "(Ce que la vie signifie pour moi)
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Healthy Planet: Il y a 130 ans, la prophétie de Pierre Loti : « Il viendra un temps où la Terre sera bien ennuyeuse à habiter, quand on l’aura rendue pareille d’un bout à l’autre, et qu’on ne pourra même plus essayer de voyager pour se distraire un peu. » (cité p. 84 de notre livre de 1997– voir plus bas)
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Healthy Way of Thinking : "Tout homme qui est un vrai homme doit apprendre à rester seul au milieu de tous, à penser seul pour tous et, au besoin, contre tous..." (Romain Rolland - Clérambault, 1917)
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Healthy Way of Life : "Ceux qui vivent, ce sont ceux qui luttent… Ceux qui marchent pensifs, épris d'un but sublime…"[Those who live are those who resist…]( Victor Hugo)
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Healthy Poetry : “Não sou nada. Nunca serei nada. Não posso querer ser nada. À parte isso, tenho em mim todos os sonhos do mundo” (Fernando Pessoa, Tabacaria, 1928)["Je ne suis rien. Je ne serai jamais rien. Je ne peux rien vouloir être. A part ça, je porte en moi tous les rêves du monde"]. "L'Amour dit 'Je suis tout'. La Sagesse dit: 'Je ne suis rien'. Ma vie coule librement entre les deux" (Nisargadatta M.)
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Healthy US America : Seattle authorities "leave a key question hanging: why would a custom dating back centuries become a magnet for trouble?" (Seattle Times, 13 Aug 2015)[Pourquoi une tradition vieille de plusieurs siècles deviendrait-elle une source de problèmes?]
Healthy Middle-East : "[for centuries] Nobody cared about the health of Middle-Easterners [...] But now that Mr. Bobby and Johnny are smoking it, it becomes a health hazard” (Samira Mohyeddin to Metronews, Canada ) ["[durant des siècles] Personne ne s'est jamais soucié de la santé des Orientaux […] Mais à présent que Mr Dupont et Mr Durand s'adonnent [à l'une de leur pratiques], cela devient un problème de santé publique…" (Samira M.)].
Healthy Canada : “It’s something they want to do out of spite not because of health concerns ” (Saddiqi, owner of 70 Down bar in Yorkville) ["C'est une chose qu'ils veulent interdire par pure perversité, non pour des raisons de santé" (Saddiqi)]
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