Rot at the BBC – who is the “smoking rots brain” quote actually from?

by | Nov 26, 2012 | Ban It, Bizarre News, civil liberties, Health, Just plain weird, Please fuck off., Politics, Sloppy Reporting, UK Misery, Well I never. | 7 comments

Try as I might, I just cannot discover who is supposedly quoted here :

Smoking “rots” the brain by damaging memory, learning and reasoning, according to researchers at King’s College London.

A study of 8,800 people over 50 showed high blood pressure and being overweight also seemed to affect the brain, but to a lesser extent.

Scientists involved said people needed to be aware that lifestyles could damage the mind as well as the body.

The full study has no mention of such a quote and neither has the King’s College press release about the research paper. Every search result you look at comes back to the BBC “rots” quote and even looking to the usual useful idiots draws a blank as well.

I can only surmise that whoever wrote the BBC article (completely unattributed) added the rot themselves although there seems to be plenty of that going around these days at our beloved state broadcaster!

Interestingly, the NHS draws exactly the same conclusion which comes as something of a surprise to me :

Smoking “rots the brain” the BBC reported today, while the Daily Mail said ‘smoking doesn’t just age your lungs, it damages your brain too’.

The BBC’s report was fair, although its claim that smoking “rots” the brain is perhaps a little colourful as the researchers did not assess whether any physical damage to the brain had occurred.

And to think we are forced to pay for this rubbish.

7 Comments

  1. fredsherbet

    Why do you think that’s a quote? There’s all sorts of reasons for putting words in quote-marks.

  2. facebook_furor.teutonicus.35

    XX And to think we are forced to pay for this rubbish. XX

    Have you put a complaint in, with the “commisioners” or whatever they are called that deal with the BBC taking the piss out of the licence payer?

    • Wasp

      FT – If I thought I would get anywhere with them I would and it would give them an excuse to spend a few hundred pounds more (at least) doing bugger all about it.

  3. Angelina@Electronic cigarette

    How can you say give cigar to your kids?
    Now a days For adults electronic cigarette are good which are using nicotine other than tobacco plant.

    • Wasp

      Angelina – cigars for everyone I say … until someone makes an e-cig with a decent battery that is! 😉

  4. Michael J. McFadden

    IMPORTANT NEWS!!!

    It has just been discovered that SMOKING ROTS THE BRAIN, thereby making it HIGHLY unappetizing to ZOMBIES!

    PREPARE for the ZOMBIE HORDES!!! Smoke all you can, as the protective factor appears to be dose dependent. It is thought that the safest course is to try to achieve at least 50 pack-years before you can party-down with the brain munchers in safety.

    GET YOUR CHILDREN READY FOR THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE with Dr. Nic’s Choco-Flavored Stogies: sure to be popular with the Kindergarten set and those fussy eaters. For the real younglings we recommend Mentholated Parliament Pacifiers as there is some evidence that zombies will be fooled, particularly if the infants are encased in protective clouds of parental smoke.

    At the moment there is no proof as yet that the Apocalypse was brought on by the Antismokers who thought that they alone would survive due to their pronounced lack of edible brain tissue. It is thought that the zombies distaste for smokers’ brains may be an unexpected side-effect of having been created in antismoking laboratories.

    Mothers, don’t let your sons grow up to be zombies! Share a Cuban Cigar with them on their first birthday!

    Signed,

    Chief Puffer, Homeland Smokeurity Forces

    • Wasp

      Michael – very amusing 🙂