Becky Freeman

🔔 This week in InSight+

Australia’s progress in reducing adolescent smoking has slowed — vaping may be why

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@drbfreeman.bsky.social
@martinmckee.bsky.social
@simonchapman.bsky.social

News - Suite of tough new illegal tobacco measures unveiled The NSW Government will introduce tough new laws to crackdown on the sale of illicit tobacco and illegal vaping goods across the state.

Excellent news - very pleased to see this action on illicit tobacco from the NSW government www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2...

Australia’s progress in reducing adolescent smoking has slowed — vaping may be why - InSight+ In October last year, we published findings from our retrospective cohort analysis of data from the Generation Vape study in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, accompanied by an ...

What happened to teen smoking rates in Australia as vaping emerged? New analysis out today insightplus.mja.com.au/2025/29/aust...

Eviction, jail and $1.5 million fines for illegal tobacco sellers Landlords would be given the power to evict tenants caught selling illegal cigarettes in a plan to fight the thriving tobacco black market.

Very welcome news. I’m very encouraged to see cross party support to seriously tackle illicit tobacco use in NSW www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw...

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Sam Egger and I raise serious concerns about a recent systematic review in Addiction, which suggests that e-cigarettes don’t lead to youth smoking. We argue the review's risk of bias (ROB) assessments are so deeply flawed that it can’t be relied on. 👇

Australia’s new lung cancer screening program has chosen simplicity over equity, and we’re concerned

Australia’s new lung cancer screen program further disadvantages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who are already at increased risk of lung cancer.

A qualitative study of how young women in a rural Canadian community plan their futures Abstract. Education and employment are well-acknowledged social determinants of health. However, little is known about how young women in rural, resource-d

Beautifully written paper on how young women in a rural Alberta community 🇨🇦 navigated planning for their future. I’m from a similar area and I was really struck by how alike my experience was…way back in the 90’s academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...

I can see seven smokes shops from my bus stop - governments must act Although Australia is a world leader in smoking cessation, we’ve done very little to control how and where tobacco is sold. These shops are everywhere.

My long time colleague @drbfreeman.bsky.social plain speaking on the NSW tobacco retail license starting today. www.smh.com.au/national/i-c... All the illegal retailers already break the law. Many will figure so what? Unless they are inspected & handed massive fines.

Health Promotion International | Oxford Academic Publishes papers on major themes and innovations in the health promotion field. The journal publishes contributions from sectors beyond health, and seeks to promote theoretical, methodological, and ac...

I’m delighted that we have seen an increase in the 2024 CiteScore / rankings for @healthpromint.bsky.social !

Our CiteScore is up to 5.0 & we have risen 7 places in Health (Social Science) & 14 places in Public Health rankings. 👏👏👏

Huge thanks to the editorial team!

academic.oup.com/heapro

@jdkite.bsky.social of interest to you

a close up of a man 's face with the words mission impossible on the bottom right Alt: a close up of a man 's face with the words mission impossible on the bottom right

Agreed to review a paper and noticed this request in the email instructions: "Please destroy the manuscript when you have completed your review." A real missed opportunity here for some Mission Impossible style tech to protect academic peer review confidentiality

South Australia is busting illegal tobacco traders big time. What’s stopping the rest of the country? Labor’s stunning election victory and the relegation of the conservative opposition to likely years of political eunuch status opens up many opportunities across all areas of government. With healt…

@chrisminnsmp.bsky.social has today blamed high federal excise for burgeoning illegal tobacco sales. Simple arithmetic shows that ALL tobacco tax would need to be axed to make legal cigs competitive with illicits -- see simonchapman6.com/2025/05/26/s... Enforcement (like SAust) is how

Australia news live: PM again pushes back at US demand for more defence spending; Minns says tobacco tax hike boosted organised crime Follow live

Tobacco taxes aren’t the problem; the slow implementation of enforcement infrastructure is preventing authorities from cracking down on illicit sales in NSW. Adoption of a licensing scheme with powerful enforcement options, such as loss of license is overdue www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

75 years this week since evidence confirming that smoking is lethal with Wynder & Graham’s landmark May 27, 1950 JAMA paper “Tobacco smoking as a possible etiologic factor in bronchiogenic carcinoma” then Doll & Hill’s historic September 30, 1950 BMJ “Smoking and carcinoma of the lung”.

Awesome opportunity 👍🏻

Research Officer - Canberra / ACT, ACT, Australia Classification: ANU Officer 5/6 (Research)Salary package: $83,351 - $97,929 per annum plus 17% superannuation Terms: 3 x Full time, Fixed Term (up to 2 years) Position overview We are recruiting three...

🚨 We're hiring! 3 roles now open at Yardhura Walani—including in the Tobacco Free team + with A/Prof Lisa Whop & Prof Ray Lovett 🔥
💥 Mob strongly encouraged to apply.
🕕 Closes 15 May 2025
📣 Plz share widely!
🔗 jobs.anu.edu.au/jobs/researc...
@publichealthaus.bsky.social @drbfreeman.bsky.social

Join us @eupha.bsky.social in standing up for science on 13th May

bsky.app/profile/euph...

LSHTM response to funding cuts and attacks on science | LSHTM Over the last month we have seen political changes in the USA shake the foundations of societies, economies and institutions around the world. Science itself is under siege - eroded by misinformation,

So has @lshtm.bsky.social
Proud of our leadership for their principled stance

www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/n...

Affirming public health At the Sydney School of Public Health, our vision is to promote and protect health equity and wellbeing for all populations and the environments we share, nationally and globally.

The global attack on public health is shocking. The Sydney School of Public Health has made a statement affirming public health that calls on all governments and all political parties to voice commitment to public health. I urge other Schools of Public Heath join us
www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-hea...

‘Do something about it before it gets worse’: young people want government action on gambling reform As gambling companies increasingly target young people, many are becoming frustrated by a lack of government action to protect them from gambling harms.

‘Do something about it before it gets worse’: young people want government action on gambling reform. @albomp.bsky.social

Our latest article in @aunz.theconversation.com

@hannahpitt.bsky.social @gracearnot.bsky.social @simonemccarthy.bsky.social

theconversation.com/do-something...

@docsamantha.bsky.social seen this?!

Menthol cigarettes banned and every stick to hold a warning We have a "relatively low" smoking rate, but the Cancer Council says 66 Australians are still dying from smoking-related illness every day.

New tobacco laws in Australia aim to encourage more smokers to quit www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04...

Menthol cigarettes will be banned from April 1. Here’s why – and what else is changing Retailers have a three-month grace period to sell any old stock already in their stores. Here’s what’s behind these changes – and what needs to happen next.

New laws come into effect in Australia today that change the look, ingredients, and packaging of tobacco products. I explain the details here: theconversation.com/menthol-ciga...

Exclusive: FDA staff struggle to meet product review deadlines after DOGE layoffs Some U.S. health regulators who review medical devices and tobacco products for safety and efficacy are struggling to meet deadlines mandated by Congress due to Trump administration layoffs, three scientists working on the projects told Reuters.

#TobRegSky #PedSky #MedSky #EpiSky #addictionsci #policysky #polisky 🧪🛟 🫁 @ats-eoph.bsky.social

FDA staff cuts delay tobacco product reviews.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...

The tobacco lobby claims vaping is displacing youth smoking – a close look at the evidence tells another story A 2020 study is frequently cited as evidence that vaping reduces youth smoking rates. But the research is flawed. Vaping might be a gateway for teens to start smoking.

The tobacco lobby claims vaping is displacing youth smoking – a close look at the evidence tells another story
theconversation.com/the-tobacco-...

Reminder: we are being trained not to care about other people. It underlines the attacks on migrants, on DEI, on trans youth, on so-called "wokeness."

Sure there are legitimate critiques but this is not about critiques. It's about supercharging capitalism's culture of uncare.

Cherry-picking redux: problems in comparing vaping retail regulatory models when only two nations are considered Dr Colin Mendelsohn recently published a co-authored paywalled paper in Addiction comparing smoking and vaping prevalence in adults and adolescents in New Zealand and Australia during 2016-2023, wh…

My new blog raising critical questions about a recent @addictionjournal.bsky.social publication which argued Australia needs to adopt NZ's "consumer access" for vapes to cut our smoking more. simonchapman6.com/2025/03/03/c...

U.S. Terminates Funding for Polio, H.I.V., Malaria and Nutrition Programs Around the World Here are some of the 5,800 contracts the Trump administration formally canceled this week in a wave of terse emails.

The Trump administration terminates funding for polio, HIV, malaria and nutrition programs around the world.

“People will die,” said Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi of the African Population and Health Research Center, “but we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut.”

Article headline: KATE EMERY: The worrying ways AI is teaching your kids about race, with an image of a young person's face in black and white, with contrasting coloured version on a phone screen.

Good opinion piece by @kateemery.bsky.social in The Nightly riffing off the research on children and generative AI tools @suzesrdarov.bsky.social and I presented at the @digitalchildau.bsky.social symposium last week:

The worrying ways AI is teaching your kids about race
thenightly.com.au/op...