We asked comedian @michaelspicer.bsky.social to respond to the opinion "Working with organised crime to improve health: a modest proposal" from our #BMJChristmas Issue 2025. Read the opinion here: www.bmj.com/content/391/...

New analysis: Progress in reducing regular smoking among Māori, Pacific and European teens slowed after the emergence of vaping in Aotearoa. The added harm is more serious for Māori and Pacific youth, who have higher rates of smoking and vaping than their peers theconversation.com/vaping-has-s...

they just slapped a surgeons general warning on RFK like he’s a pack of cigarettes

🚭 Leadership is needed to tackle illicit tobacco in Australia. A new commentary argues: - Tobacco market is over-supplied & under-regulated - Cutting excise isn’t the answer - Stronger licensing & caps on retailers needed Read 👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Tuesday marks 75 years since the historic September 30, 1950 Doll & Hill BMJ paper confirming smoking as a cause of lung cancer. For 75 years tobacco companies have been selling and promoting products they know are lethal when used as intended. www.bmj.com/content/2/46...

No need for science when pregnancy is your political football

Gobsmacking when this advice had such huge influence "Neither the Associate Minister nor the Minister's office staff had been able to confirm who had written tobacco policy notes that were held in the Minister's office in paper form and used for ministerial purposes," www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Critics of the tobacco excise argue the tax has stopped working to further reduce smoking rates and should be lowered. 👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/could-m...

Insightful read. Aligns with World Bank view that tobacco tax rates have a smaller impact on the illicit tobacco market than effective enforcement, regulation, and supply chain controls. Exactly what we're calling for in Australia to combat illicit @ashorguk.bsky.social ash.org.uk/media-centre...

New statement: IDSA, APHA and partners call for RFK Jr. to resign: "Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue — not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe." bit.ly/3JOgDya

An extraordinary joint op-ed and plea by NINE former directors or acting directors of the CDC under both Democratic and Republican administrations, succinctly describing undermining of public health, and what’s needed now. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

So, the technical report on Age Assurance (nee Verification) basically says no single tool works well enough to be relied on, and all the concerns about inaccuracy, bias and privacy flagged before the report all remain. 🙄 www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

We can’t be complacent here - time for some action to keep our community safe

Vape brands bypass regulations on marketing to young people by using global social media accounts theconversation.com/vape-brands-...

🔔 This week in InSight+ Australia’s progress in reducing adolescent smoking has slowed — vaping may be why buff.ly/pEqUuQ5 @drbfreeman.bsky.social @martinmckee.bsky.social @simonchapman.bsky.social

Excellent news - very pleased to see this action on illicit tobacco from the NSW government www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2...

What happened to teen smoking rates in Australia as vaping emerged? New analysis out today insightplus.mja.com.au/2025/29/aust...

Very welcome news. I’m very encouraged to see cross party support to seriously tackle illicit tobacco use in NSW www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw...

🧵1/8 Sam Egger and I raise serious concerns about a recent systematic review in Addiction, which suggests that e-cigarettes don’t lead to youth smoking. We argue the review's risk of bias (ROB) assessments are so deeply flawed that it can’t be relied on. 👇

Australia’s new lung cancer screen program further disadvantages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who are already at increased risk of lung cancer.

Beautifully written paper on how young women in a rural Alberta community 🇨🇦 navigated planning for their future. I’m from a similar area and I was really struck by how alike my experience was…way back in the 90’s academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...

My long time colleague @drbfreeman.bsky.social plain speaking on the NSW tobacco retail license starting today. www.smh.com.au/national/i-c... All the illegal retailers already break the law. Many will figure so what? Unless they are inspected & handed massive fines.

I’m delighted that we have seen an increase in the 2024 CiteScore / rankings for @healthpromint.bsky.social ! Our CiteScore is up to 5.0 & we have risen 7 places in Health (Social Science) & 14 places in Public Health rankings. 👏👏👏 Huge thanks to the editorial team! academic.oup.com/heapro

Agreed to review a paper and noticed this request in the email instructions: "Please destroy the manuscript when you have completed your review." A real missed opportunity here for some Mission Impossible style tech to protect academic peer review confidentiality

@chrisminnsmp.bsky.social has today blamed high federal excise for burgeoning illegal tobacco sales. Simple arithmetic shows that ALL tobacco tax would need to be axed to make legal cigs competitive with illicits -- see simonchapman6.com/2025/05/26/s... Enforcement (like SAust) is how

Tobacco taxes aren’t the problem; the slow implementation of enforcement infrastructure is preventing authorities from cracking down on illicit sales in NSW. Adoption of a licensing scheme with powerful enforcement options, such as loss of license is overdue www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

75 years this week since evidence confirming that smoking is lethal with Wynder & Graham’s landmark May 27, 1950 JAMA paper “Tobacco smoking as a possible etiologic factor in bronchiogenic carcinoma” then Doll & Hill’s historic September 30, 1950 BMJ “Smoking and carcinoma of the lung”.

🚨 We're hiring! 3 roles now open at Yardhura Walani—including in the Tobacco Free team + with A/Prof Lisa Whop & Prof Ray Lovett 🔥 💥 Mob strongly encouraged to apply. 🕕 Closes 15 May 2025 📣 Plz share widely! 🔗 jobs.anu.edu.au/jobs/researc... @publichealthaus.bsky.social @drbfreeman.bsky.social

Join us @eupha.bsky.social in standing up for science on 13th May bsky.app/profile/euph...

So has @lshtm.bsky.social Proud of our leadership for their principled stance www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/n...

The global attack on public health is shocking. The Sydney School of Public Health has made a statement affirming public health that calls on all governments and all political parties to voice commitment to public health. I urge other Schools of Public Heath join us www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-hea...

‘Do something about it before it gets worse’: young people want government action on gambling reform. @albomp.bsky.social Our latest article in @aunz.theconversation.com @hannahpitt.bsky.social @gracearnot.bsky.social @simonemccarthy.bsky.social theconversation.com/do-something...

New tobacco laws in Australia aim to encourage more smokers to quit www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04...

New laws come into effect in Australia today that change the look, ingredients, and packaging of tobacco products. I explain the details here: theconversation.com/menthol-ciga...

#TobRegSky #PedSky #MedSky #EpiSky #addictionsci #policysky #polisky 🧪🛟 🫁 @ats-eoph.bsky.social FDA staff cuts delay tobacco product reviews. www.reuters.com/business/hea...

The tobacco lobby claims vaping is displacing youth smoking – a close look at the evidence tells another story theconversation.com/the-tobacco-...

Reminder: we are being trained not to care about other people. It underlines the attacks on migrants, on DEI, on trans youth, on so-called "wokeness." Sure there are legitimate critiques but this is not about critiques. It's about supercharging capitalism's culture of uncare.

My new blog raising critical questions about a recent @addictionjournal.bsky.social publication which argued Australia needs to adopt NZ's "consumer access" for vapes to cut our smoking more. simonchapman6.com/2025/03/03/c...

The Trump administration terminates funding for polio, HIV, malaria and nutrition programs around the world. “People will die,” said Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi of the African Population and Health Research Center, “but we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut.”

Good opinion piece by @kateemery.bsky.social in The Nightly riffing off the research on children and generative AI tools @suzesrdarov.bsky.social and I presented at the @digitalchildau.bsky.social symposium last week: The worrying ways AI is teaching your kids about race thenightly.com.au/op...

Public Health in the firing line www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Words such as “health equity” are being replacing with vaguer terms, and 100 members sent a letter of protest to NASEM leaders.

Roses are red Cigarettes kill Death to the industry That is making us ill Public Health Valentine 💝

My favourite Zoom blunder of all time... a welcome bit of light relief on this otherwise incredibly bleak timeline

There's "being wrong in early in a pandemic" wrong and then there's "doubling down over and over again until you find yourself in bed with RFK Jr. and founding a whole-ass journal to discredit all of academic publishing along with all of medicine" wrong. publichealth.realclearjournals.org

@markbutlermp.bsky.social's vaping legislation has knocked stuffing out of vape exports to Australia, which have overwhelmingly arrived from China. That still getting in now costing $$$ which precludes most kids buying it, the key objective. Chinese gvt data english.customs.gov.cn/Statistics/S...

Some encouraging early signs that Australian vape laws are reducing adolescent vape access and use thedailyaus.com.au/stories/the-...

We wrote about Trump withdrawing WHO funding in 2020. Applies all over again today @croakeynews.bsky.social www.croakey.org/how-an-uncon...