Passive smoking and its pre-history in Britain: policy speaks to science?

Virginia Berridge

Social Science & Medicine, 1999, vol. 49, issue 9, 1183-1195

Abstract: This paper analyses the emergence of passive smoking as a 'scientific fact' and its relationship to policy objectives for smoking control in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s. It relates this 'discovery' to the emergence and changing objectives of the post-war public health coalition, founded on the concepts of epidemiology. It examines the reciprocal relationship between scientific facts and policy aims, arguing that passive smoking was a 'scientific fact waiting to emerge'. Its conceptual and policy implications embodied the environmental individualism of late twentieth century public health and the alliances with technology and biomedicine within it.

Keywords: Public; health; Science; Policy; History; Smoking; Drugs; UK (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(99)00159-8
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:49:y:1999:i:9:p:1183-1195

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().