The political impact of science: is tobacco control science- or policy-driven?

Understanding the Influence of Evidence in Public Health Policy: What Can We Learn from the ‘Tobacco Wars’?

“…Like Larsen (2008) and Berridge (2006), this paper quickly concluded that rational, evidence-focused approaches are inadequate for understanding the fraught relationship between public health evidence about, and policy responses to, the UK's 'tobacco epidemic'. Such approaches leave key questions unanswered, notably why there was such a long delay between the emergence of evidence about tobacco related harms and significant policy action to reduce those harms.…”

“…One immediately obvious flaw with this approach is, as Larsen (2008) highlights, the failure to account for the significant delay between official recognition of the health harms associated with tobacco use and passive smoking (see Berridge 1999; and the policy interventions intended to reduce these harms. Some tobacco control interventions were, of course, put in place in the 1960s-1980s but, aside from tax increases, they were often voluntary and as Cairney (2007) argues, in legislative terms, UK tobacco policy has been characterised by periods of significant stability, followed by rapid change, notably from the mid-1990s onwards.…”

“…Farquharson 2003;Berridge 2006;Breton et al 2006;Givel 2006;Cairney 2007;Princen 2007;Larsen 2008;Young et al 2012). It differs from most others by focusing specifically on the role of evidence and ideas in the decade-long debates about tobacco.…”

Introduction

“…Almost ten years ago, Larsen (2008) noted that there was remarkably little interaction between mainstream tobacco control literature and public policy literature. This is slowly changing.…”

“…Idealists in the tobacco control field may expect that the presentation of scientific facts will automatically result in rational policy decisions, and when this does not happen a common explanation is that the tobacco industry has been successful in casting doubt on the evidence and in lobbying to delay regulation (Larsen, 2008). The industry is certainly well known for casting doubt on science, misleading politicians, and opposing or delaying tobacco control (Baba, Cook, McGarity, & Bero, 2005;Bornhauser, McCarthy, & Glantz, 2006;Costa, Gilmore, Peeters, McKee, & Stuckler, 2014;Lie, Willemsen, De Vries, & Fooks, 2016;Tobacco Free Initiative, 2008), but pointing to the tobacco industry as the sole reason for why governments do not take action is a gross simplification.…”