Guest post from Christopher Snowdon, Author, writer of ‘ Velvet Glove, Iron Fist‘ blog and Director of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs.
It is my contention that the anti-smoking lobby, like the public health lobby in general, is made up of three groups: those who are genuinely concerned about health, those who hate industry, and those who are old-fashioned puritans. Until recently, I would have added a fourth group – those who hate the smell of tobacco smoke, but they are becoming increasingly redundant in ‘smokefree’ countries. A good prima facie case for this contention can be made by studying the anti-smoking movements that arose sporadically between the seventeenth century and the 1930s, ie. before there was clear evidence of negative health effects. Many of these pre-modern anti-smoking groups were quite overtly rooted in religious and moral traditions. A hatred of ‘vice’ is a feature of all…
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