The History of the Conspiracy Against Tobacco
http://www.smokershistory.com/index.htm
Interesting information regarding the hidden role of viruses in diseases attributed to smoking.
An excerpt:
"Proof of Conspiracy to Hide the Role of Viruses in Lung Cancer
The anti-smoker propaganda claim that "Scientists may have found a way to tell which smokers are at highest risk of developing lung cancer: measuring a telltale genetic [sic] change inside their windpipes" is proof of deliberate deceit. Dr. Avrum Spira et al. found that some current or former smokers with lung cancer or precancerous lesions had higher activity of a certain enzyme in their upper airways than those who didn't. "[T]he genes involved were part of a well-known cancer-causing pathway named the PI3K pathway. When PI3K-related genes are too active, too much cell growth can occur, but most studies have examined those genes only in tumors." Six of nine patients treated with experimental drugs had there lesions improve. It's dressed up with deceitful rhetoric that "Smoking bathes the entire respiratory tract in toxins." (Developing test to warn smokers of cancer danger. By Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer, Apr. 8, 2010.)
BUT - What they're testing for, activation of the PI3K system, is actually a sign of virus infection. "A number of viruses including EBV, HPV, HBV and HCV have the ability to establish long-term infections in the host, either through the establishment of latent or chronic infections, which can ultimately lead to cellular transformation. It appears that the gene products of these viruses stimulate PI3K–Akt-mediated cell survival and thereby block apoptosis of the cells they infect. This contributes to both virus survival and oncogenic transformation…" (The pivotal role of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase–Akt signal transduction in virus survival. S Cooray. J Gen Virol 2004;85:1065-1076.)
And among that list of viruses, HPV is implicated in at least a quarter of non-small cell lung cancers. Cytomegalovirus, an even more widespread chronic infection, also activates the PI3K pathway. It is an intrinsic property of these viruses. The fact that Spira et al. must test for PI3K activation is prima facie evidence that it is not an intrinsic effect of smoking. But they don't mention these salient facts, never mind demonstrate that they are not merely measuring the effects of viral infection, and they blame PI3K activation on smoking by the use of deceitful rhetoric. They use the word "smokers" 76 times, while inconspicuously admitting that "this increased activity is independent of smoking status or other smoking-related disease." This is part of a deliberate, systematic conspiracy which the funding sources for many of Spira et al.'s studies, including the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, have engaged in for decades, in order to deceive the public and wage of war of cultural genocide against smokers. (Airway PI3K Pathway Activation Is an Early and Reversible Event in Lung Cancer Development.)