Dr Christopher John Snowdon is a British author and freelance journalist. He is particularly known as a vocal opponent of government intervention in areas such as tobacco, alcohol, and obesity.
Snowdon was born in North Yorkshire in 1976 and studied history at Lancaster University, graduating in 1998.
He has written for the Spiked website, The Daily Telegraph [1] and The Spectator , [2] as well as the Conservative Home website.
Snowdon is "Head of Lifestyle Economics" at the Institute of Economic Affairs, [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] a free market think tank that receives funding from sources such as BP, [8] the gambling industry, [8] British American Tobacco, [9] [10] the alcohol industry, food industry, and sugar industry. [11]
His first book, Velvet Glove, Iron Fist (2009), is a history of anti-smoking activity from the fifteenth century to the present day. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum. The more potent variant N. rustica is also used in some countries.
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opposite end. Cigarette smoking is the most common method of tobacco consumption. The term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette, but the word is sometimes used to refer to other substances, such as a cannabis cigarette or a herbal cigarette. A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its usually smaller size, use of processed leaf, different smoking method, and paper wrapping, which is typically white.
The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies who are engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any warm, moist environment, which means it can be farmed on all continents except Antarctica.
Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and ingesting the resulting smoke. The smoke may be inhaled, as is done with cigarettes, or simply released from the mouth, as is generally done with pipes and cigars. The practice is believed to have begun as early as 5000–3000 BC in Mesoamerica and South America. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 17th century by European colonists, where it followed common trade routes. The practice encountered criticism from its first import into the Western world onwards but embedded itself in certain strata of a number of societies before becoming widespread upon the introduction of automated cigarette-rolling apparatus.
Smoking bans, or smoke-free laws, are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, that prohibit tobacco smoking in certain spaces. The spaces most commonly affected by smoking bans are indoor workplaces and buildings open to the public such as restaurants, bars, office buildings, schools, retail stores, hospitals, libraries, transport facilities, and government buildings, in addition to public transport vehicles such as aircraft, buses, watercraft, and trains. However, laws may also prohibit smoking in outdoor areas such as parks, beaches, pedestrian plazas, college and hospital campuses, and within a certain distance from the entrance to a building, and in some cases, private vehicles and multi-unit residences.
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a right-wing, free market think tank registered as a UK charity. Associated with the New Right, the IEA describes itself as an "educational research institute" and says that it seeks to "further the dissemination of free-market thinking" by "analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems". The IEA is the oldest free market think-tank in the UK and was established to promote free-market responses to economic challenges by targeting influential academics and journalists, as well as students, in order to propagate these ideas widely. Adopting as its credo FA Hayek's view that "yesterday's dissent becomes today's consensus," the IEA says that it prioritises producing work with a focus on economic insights over partisan politics.
The Fraser Institute is a libertarian-conservative Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity. It is headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. It has links to think tanks worldwide through the Economic Freedom Network and is a member of the free-market Atlas Network.
Nicholas Hugh Minchin is an Australian former politician and former Australian Consul-General in New York, USA. He previously served as a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing South Australia from July 1993 to June 2011, and a former cabinet minister in the Howard government.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit American think tank based in Washington, D.C., that carries out economic research and analyzes the economic impact of policies and proposals. Affiliated with the labor movement, the EPI is usually described as presenting a left-leaning and pro-union viewpoint on public policy issues. Since 2021, EPI has been led by economist Heidi Shierholz, the former chief economist of the Department of Labor.
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservative non-profit free market public policy think tank, which is based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It advocates free-market economic policies, such as privatisation, deregulation of state-owned enterprises, trade liberalisation, deregulation of workplaces, abolition of the minimum wage, criticism of socialism, and repeal of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. It also rejects large parts of climate science.
FOREST is a United Kingdom smokers' rights group primarily funded by the tobacco industry which campaigns against what it sees as "excessive regulation" of smoking and tobacco products.
Nicotine marketing is the marketing of nicotine-containing products or use. Traditionally, the tobacco industry markets cigarette smoking, but it is increasingly marketing other products, such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products. Products are marketed through social media, stealth marketing, mass media, and sponsorship. Expenditures on nicotine marketing are in the tens of billions a year; in the US alone, spending was over US$1 million per hour in 2016; in 2003, per-capita marketing spending was $290 per adult smoker, or $45 per inhabitant. Nicotine marketing is increasingly regulated; some forms of nicotine advertising are banned in many countries. The World Health Organization recommends a complete tobacco advertising ban.
The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian 501(c)(3) nonprofit public policy think tank known for denying the scientific consensus on climate change and the negative health impacts of smoking.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is the name of a number of autonomous pressure groups (charities) in the anglosphere that seek to publicize the risks associated with tobacco smoking and campaign for greater restrictions on use and on cigarette and tobacco sales.
Roger Bate is a British educated economist who has held a variety of positions in free market oriented organizations. His work focuses on solving the problem of counterfeit and substandard medicines, particularly those in the developing world. He also works on US and international aid policy, performance of aid organisations, and health policy in developing countries, particularly with regard to malaria control and the use of DDT. He consulted for the tobacco industry in the mid-'90s, though the extent of this work is disputed. He is currently a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute of Economic Affairs, and he was on the board of directors of Africa Fighting Malaria.
Operation Berkshire is the name of a program initiated in 1976 by seven of the world's major tobacco companies aimed at promoting "controversy" over smoking and disease.
A menthol cigarette is a cigarette infused with the compound menthol which imparts a “minty” flavor to the smoke. Menthol also decreases irritant sensations from nicotine by desensitizing receptors, making smoking feel less harsh compared to regular cigarettes. Some studies have suggested that they are more addictive. Menthol cigarettes are just as hard to quit and are just as harmful as regular cigarettes.
Ventilated cigarettes are considered to have a milder flavor than regular cigarettes. These cigarette brands may be listed as having lower levels of tar ("low-tar"), nicotine, or other chemicals as "inhaled" by a "smoking machine". However, the scientific evidence is that switching from regular to light or low-tar cigarettes does not reduce the health risks of smoking or lower the smoker's exposure to the nicotine, tar, and carcinogens present in cigarette smoke.
John C. Luik was a senior fellow of the Democracy Institute. A Rhodes Scholar attached to Hertford College at the University of Oxford, he was a Senior Associate of the Niagara Institute with responsibility for its work in public policy and its Values and Organizational Development programmes." From 1977 to 1990 he taught philosophy and ethics at two Canadian universities, but was dismissed from each for misrepresenting his academic credentials. He acted on behalf of the tobacco industry amongst others and was prominent in criticising the evidence related to the claimed links between passive smoking and cancer.
The history of nicotine marketing stretches back centuries. Nicotine marketing has continually developed new techniques in response to historical circumstances, societal and technological change, and regulation. Counter marketing has also changed, in both message and commonness, over the decades, often in response to pro-nicotine marketing.