Skeptics in the Pub Köln

Skeptics in the Pubis a British pub-based edutainment format that is now also held in various German cities. You can look forward to an engaging talk in a relaxed atmosphere, followed by a Q&A and discussion.
More info atsitp.koeln—organized bySkeptics in the Pub e. V.

Dr. Holm Hümmler: “100 Years of Blue Haze—How the Dangers of Smoking Are Downplayed”
Ever since the first findings linking smoking to lung cancer emerged, smoking has been systematically downplayed—not only by tobacco companies, but by others as well. Today, the downplaying of smoking is considered the prototypical example of science denial. A critical look at the facts about smoking and their distorted portrayal in advertising, PR, and questionable studies over the past 100 years reveals surprising, bizarre, and alarming truths. We’ll examine advertisements touting the supposed health benefits of smoking, the ADAC’s stance on smoking in cars, “A Sincere Statement to Cigarette Smokers,” and the work of the cigarette industry’s scientific institutes. Do you actually know what causes cigarette filters to turn brown when smoked, and what makes a cigarette “light”?

Holm studied physics (with a minor in meteorology), wrote his master’s thesis in nuclear physics in collaboration with CERN, earned his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, and also completed additional studies in business administration. Today, he is a management consultant and managing director of Uncertainty Managers Consulting GmbH.

As a skeptic, he has been active since the 1990s, addressing pseudophysics and conspiracy myths; he is the author of *Faktenimmun*, “Fact and Prejudice,” “Conspiracy Myths,” and “Relative Quantum Quark,” as well as the Quantum Quark blog, and a member of the core team of “WTF-Talk” on Twitch; he was previously part of “Ferngespräch.”