To the Editor:
Dr Aoun-Bacha and her colleagues' pioneering and sound study on exhaled CO and saliva cotinine in narghile smokers in Lebanon cite one of my publications by twice [1][2]:
“However, the WHO report has been criticized, and errors were shown, dealing with the chemistry of smoke, health-related effects, smoking patterns, description and history of the device and its use, gender and underage use aspects, and prevention and research needs in this field (CitationChaouachi, 2006): Chaouachi suggested that many results were drawn in artificially produced and unrealistic conditions in a laboratory, which led to confusion and overestimation of waterpipe toxicity”. (p. 772)
“The tobacco placed on the head of the device does not burn in a self-sustained manner, but is continuously heated by a lit piece of charcoal, which is moved and renewed as necessary (CitationChaouachi, 2006)”. (p. 771)
For some likely technical reason, this double mention was unfortunately not printed in the References section of their study. I hope the picture will now be clearer for its readers.
Dr Kamal Chaouachi
Tobacco Researcher and Consultant (Paris)
REFERENCES
- Z. A. Bacha, P. Salameh, and M. Waked. (2007). Saliva Cotinine and Exhaled Carbon Monoxide Levels in Natural Environment Waterpipe Smokers. Inhalation Toxicology 19 (9):771–777.
- K. Chaouachi. A Critique of the WHO's TobReg “Advisory Note” entitled: “Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: Health Effects, Research Needs and Recommended Actions by Regulators” (2005)., (2006) Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine (17 Nov); 5:17. http://www.jnrbm.com/content/5/1/17.