Harry Shapiro
Harry’s blog 112. Tobacco control and the wrath of God
Nov. 17, 2021
What were the organisers thinking – that somehow a teenager would sneak a poster lauding the benefits of cigarettes past the judges?? A couple of days ago, it struck me that the basis of this rule...
Harry’s blog 111: Stop talking about stopping.
May 28, 2021
There are many reasons; ritual, culture, accepted behaviour among peers, and maybe the power of advertising (although more diminished these days). But the primary reason must be that they enjoy th...
Harry’s blog 110: A new paradigm for tobacco regulation
April 12, 2021
And then from 2006 onwards a disruptive technology emerged – the vaping device allowing consumers to enjoy nicotine (yes, enjoy) without all the risks consequent on sparking up a cigarette. US smo...
Harry’s blog 109: The myth of the vaping controversy
Jan. 18, 2021
Beyond that, is mask wearing an effective barrier? If so, what kind and where should they be worn? Do you render the vaccine less effective by extending the time between each dose? How long is the...
Harry’s Blog 108: If something doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t make sense
Dec. 15, 2020
Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations became regarded as the template for capitalism. But while Smith was a free marketeer, his work had moral underpinnings; after all, he was also the author of The Theo...
Harry’s Blog 107: Tobacco ‘out of’ Control
Dec. 7, 2020
“There seems to be no study too fragmented, no hypothesis too trivial, no literature citation too biased or too egotistical, no design too warped, no methodology too bungled, no presentation of re...
Harry’s blog 106: Back to front
Nov. 16, 2020
Pro-THR consumer groups and other bodies are often accused of being front organisations for the tobacco industry. Historically, the industry did establish at least one front organisation, the Toba...
Harry’s Blog 105: Sheer Heart Attack
Oct. 2, 2020
Next year, the European Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) is up for review. Politicians will have to decide if the TPD needs amending. An important part of that process will be consideration of the...
Harry’s Blog 104: Baptists and Bootleggers
Sept. 7, 2020
Hang on though. It was noticeable last year that when flavour bans were mooted in the USA alongside an outright ban in India, tobacco company share prices in those countries rose. You don’t need t...
Harry’s Blog 103: Tobacco Harm Reduction from A to A
Aug. 19, 2020
First, here’s what we cannot do – legislate cigarettes out of existence. Some rosy prohibitionist vision of the future won’t wash. There is too much money at stake, not just for multi-national tob...