Public and governmental attitudes toward tobacco use are dramatically different today when compared to the attitudes of the mid-1960s. Smoking then was widely regarded as a mark of sophistication and a natural companion at work and play. The accumulating evidence on the serious health risks of smoking to both smokers and nonsmokers has changed those sentiments. Now tobacco use is increasingly a target of cultural disapproval - both in social circles and in the regulatory arena.
Smoking Policy: Law, Politics, and Culture examines the interplay between public opinion and governmental action as norms have changed about whether one should smoke and where it is appropriate to do so. In this study, an interdisciplinary team from law, public health, communications, political science and sociology addresses a wide range of tobacco control issues. Topics covered include the politics of smoking control, lawsuits by smokers against the tobacco industry, the strategies of employers and insurers in discouraging smoking lessons from drug and alcohol control, the conversion of smoking from a health issue into a moral issue, the enforcement of no smoking rules, and the impact of tobacco advertising controls.
This volume provides a comprehensive exploration of both institutional and informal mechanisms regulating tobacco use in late-twentieth century America. The contributors assess the roles played by public officials, corporations and insurers, the scientific, public health and medical communities, and opinion leaders. Smoking Policy is essential reading for policymakers and advocates, professionals in law, public health, and social science fields, corporate officials, and those generally interested in issues of smoking and public health.
Industry Reviews
"The authors use social science approaches to the subject to illustrate the wide range of implications, social, political and legal, which are associated with the issue....They deserve our congratulations for producing very thorough and interesting studies of this important public policy area. Although the book is dense with facts and theories, it is engrossing and rewarding....Rabin and Sugarman have come up with a good volume of essays. It is a book which
will interest scholars from a variety of academic fields and those with interests beyond smoking and health. They have made a fine contribution to public policy scholarship as well as to the discussion of
this particular issue."--The Law and Politics Book Review
"Smoking Policy offers the most comprehensive examination of the smoking debate to date and should prove a valuable resource for anyone interested in this contentious issue." -- Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy
"Smoking Policy provides a rich and informed analysis of the legal, political, economic, and cultural aspects of tobacco use. It underscores the shifting and often ambivalent societal values regarding smoking. This work is must reading for the current debate over smoking control."--Richard Stewart, New York University Law School
"Smoking Policy is must reading for anyone who wants the benefit of serious scholarly reflections on the human toll, moral dilemma, and legal response to smoking."--Paul C. Weiler, Harvard Law School
"Not surprisingly, most writing on smoking-related policies focuses on their impact on smoking rates. Smoking Policy is different, in that it treats public health concerns as only one among several criteria for good policies, and smoking control policies as social artifacts to be examined historically and sociologically. This book is both important and unique."--Richard A. Daynard, Northeastern University School of Law
"The authors use social science approaches to the subject to illustrate the wide range of implications, social, political and legal, which are associated with the issue....They deserve our congratulations for producing very thorough and interesting studies of this important public policy area. Although the book is dense with facts and theories, it is engrossing and rewarding....Rabin and Sugarman have come up with a good volume of essays. It is a book which
will interest scholars from a variety of academic fields and those with interests beyond smoking and health. They have made a fine contribution to public policy scholarship as well as to the discussion of
this particular issue."--The Law and Politics Book Review
"Smoking Policy offers the most comprehensive examination of the smoking debate to date and should prove a valuable resource for anyone interested in this contentious issue." -- Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy
"Smoking Policy provides a rich and informed analysis of the legal, political, economic, and cultural aspects of tobacco use. It underscores the shifting and often ambivalent societal values regarding smoking. This work is must reading for the current debate over smoking control."--Richard Stewart, New York University Law School
"Smoking Policy is must reading for anyone who wants the benefit of serious scholarly reflections on the human toll, moral dilemma, and legal response to smoking."--Paul C. Weiler, Harvard Law School
"Not surprisingly, most writing on smoking-related policies focuses on their impact on smoking rates. Smoking Policy is different, in that it treats public health concerns as only one among several criteria for good policies, and smoking control policies as social artifacts to be examined historically and sociologically. This book is both important and unique."--Richard A. Daynard, Northeastern University School of Law
"Highly recommended for libraries and professional practitioners in the areas of law, public policy, and public health."--Choice
"Very well written and has an extensive bibliography....An excellent information source for pharmacists with responsibilities in managed care or smoking-cessation programs." --Andrew A. Webster, Samford University, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacists
"Diversity, a major strength of the book, brings experts from a variety of non-health-related disciplines--with new and unique insights--into a field of study that has been dominated by health professionals."--The New England Journal of Medicine
