Peter Boyle, Nigel Gray, Jack Henningfield, John Seffrin, & Witold Zatonski (Eds.).
Tobacco: Science, Policy & Public Health (2004).
Oxford University Press.
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AUG/SEPT 2005
Volume 11 - No. 3
SRNT Newsletter
Aug/Sept 2005, Volume 11, Number 3
Book Review
This well organized text covers a broad swath of tobacco topics. The forceful Preface by C. Everett Koop frames the overall tobacco debate as a matter of good vs. evil. Koop pulls no punches here, so those in the industry who are sensitive about being called "evil" multiple times may want to tear out pages v to xvii. (Redaction would be another proven option.) Indeed, Koop makes his point in no uncertain terms:
"President Reagan called the Soviet Union, `the evil empire', and George W. Bush referred to Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, as the `axis of evil'. Yet these entities to whom evils were attributed have not killed more than 400,000 citizens of the United States, or millions worldwide, each year. The evil empire is Big Tobacco and, unlike military and political enemies who say, `I intend to kill you if I can', Big Tobacco disguises its evil with the invitation to light up, and become alive with pleasure."
Following the Preface comes a total of 44 chapters. These are organized into 13 sections: 1) Tobacco: History (three chapters) ; 2) Tobacco: Composition (two chapters); 3) Nico-tine and addiction (four chapters); 4) Tobacco use: Prevalence, trends, influences (six chap-ters); 5) Tobacco and health: Global burden (four chapters); 6) Tobacco and cancer (twelve chapters); 7) Tobacco and heart disease (one chapter); 8) Tobacco and respiratory disease (one chapter); 9) Tobacco and other diseases (one chapter); 10) Genetics, nicotine addiction, and smoking (one chapter); 11) Tobacco and alcohol (one chapter); 12) Tobacco control: Successes and failures (six chapters); and 13) Treatment of dependence (two chapters).
The list of 73 authors for the various chapters
is a tobacco who's who, and includes
university professors, experts at non-governmental organizations such as the American
Cancer Society, governmental agencies such as the National Cancer Institute, and
international agencies such as the World Health Organization. The list is long and
luminous…. better to not try listing "key" authors, as
space
limitations would prevent inclusion of many that one surely would not wish to offend. It is
easier, perhaps, to mention those not on the
author list: not a single representative from the tobacco companies is a contributor.
As can be seen from the distribution of chapters, the book does a good job of covering tobacco matters relating to addiction, disease, public health around the world, and tobacco control and treatment. Missing is any significant discussion of how additives could either affect smoke properties or lead to toxic products during the smoking process. Also, while some excellent discussion of "harm reduction" and "potentially reduced exposure products" (PREPs) has been included, triple the amount present would not have been too much.
Each major section of the book is independent of the others, and overall the book is very readable. For example, the non-cancer specialist won't be overwhelmed in the cancer sections, nor will most non-chemists be overwhelmed by the discussions of smoke chemistry. This book will thus be an excellent reference for the varied scientists and regulators now working on matters relating to tobacco.
Dr. Pankow is a Professor at the Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon and is a member of the OHSU Cancer Institute. His tobacco research interests focus on tobacco smoke chemistry, free-base nicotine in tobacco smoke, and the relationships between tobacco rod additives and the resulting tobacco smoke chemistry.