Book Description

Smoke Signals gathers 71 of Professor Simon Chapman’s authoritative, acerbic and often heretical essays written in newspapers, blogs and research journals across his 40-year career. They cover major developments and debates in tobacco control, public health ethics, cancer screening, gun control and panics about low risk agents like wi-fi, mobile phone towers and wind turbines. This collection is an essential guide to the landscape of many key debates in contemporary public health. It will be invaluable to public health students and practitioners, while remaining compelling reading for all interested in health policy. When is Simon Chapman the academic, intellectual, self-appointed chief wowser of the nanny state gunna leave us alone? Steve Price, Australian radio broadcaster His insane wibblings are worrying yes, but still bloody funny to read. Christopher Snowdon, Institute of Economic Affairs, London Simon Chapman is emeritus professor in public health at the University of Sydney. He has won the World Health Organization’s medal for tobacco control (1998), the American Cancer Society’s Luther Terry Award for outstanding individual leadership in tobacco control (2003), and was NSW Premier’s Cancer Researcher of the Year medal (2008). In 2013 he was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for his contributions to public health and named 2013 Australian Skeptic of the Year. In 2014, the Australian right-wing think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, named him as one of Australia’s Dirty Dozen all-time “opponents of freedom”.