Here is more voodoo math for your holiday reading pleasure.
In Norway, a couple of guys decided to study 16,932 men who smoked pipes and cigarettes to determine if pipes were less hazardous than cigarettes.
Their conclusion is that pipes are indeed just as deadly as cigarettes.
And how did they come to this conclusion?
I am glad you asked.
Okay, hang on, now, this is going to get bumpy because the voodoo becomes a hoodoo!
First, you take your 16,932 men who are between the ages of 20 to 49. In the test, they are screened for cardiovascular disease risk factors. The test starts in the mid-1970s, and then the men are re-screened after 3–13 years, and followed throughout 2007.
You still with me?
Over that length of time, some 403,327 years (start the voodoo math here) 4,933 of the men die. Now, the two Norway guys claim that there is only a difference of 1.9 percent in the deaths of pipe smokers and cigarette smokers when balanced against non-smokers. Hoodoo here.
Hmmm. That is the the Norway voodoo hoodoo way of looking at it.
My math goes like this: if you have 16,932 men smoking pipes and you rack up 403,327 years with the briar and only 4,933 of them die, that is a little over 81 deaths per year.
Hell, that’s lower than natural mortality. You have that many years to die and surely you can get more than 4,933 to drop off the planet! Whooooboy, that’s some voodoo. I’ve not seen the likes of that since I visited Madam Trudeaux in New Orleans and she conjured up this really beautiful blond from the backside. Front side was missing teeth and such.
Uh, in the meantime, I rest my case.
You can see the dumbfounding study at Tobacco Control
Selah
