3. How did the issue get on the policy agenda?

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we examine how the issue of smoking and lung cancer did finally get on the policy agenda. This was the result of the work of institutions and individuals. The Royal College of Physicians and their pressure group, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), were crucial. So was the work of individuals like Charles Fletcher and Mike Daube.

Course

In this course, Professor Virginia Berridge (LSHTM) examines the history of the connection between smoking and lung cancer. We start by looking at when the connection was discovered and how this linked to the sweeping changes occurring in public health in the 1940s and 1950s. We’ll then look at why people did not accept the evidence on smoking and lung cancer. The next module will examine how the issue finally got on the policy agenda from the early 1960s. The penultimate module will look closely at the health education campaigns on smoking and how effective these were. Finally, we’ll look at later developments, such as passive smoking and e-cigarettes.

Lecturer

Virginia Berridge is a professor of the history of public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science and honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and of the Royal College of Physicians. Her research focuses on smoking policy, drug policy (illicit), alcohol policy, the role of the media, and HIV/AIDS policy. Her current research encompasses both the epidemic and chronic disease histories of public health.