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Simon Chapman

Emeritus Professor in Public Health, University of Sydney

Simon Chapman AO PhD FASSA HonFFPH(UK) is Emeritus Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney. He has published over 500 articles in peer reviewed journals and 19 books and major reports. His H index is 53 and he has over 10,500 citations.

In 1997 he won the World Health Organisation's World No Tobacco Day Medal and in 2003 he was voted by his international peers to be awarded the American Cancer Society’s Luther Terry Award for outstanding individual leadership in tobacco control. In 2008 he won the NSW Premier’s Cancer Researcher of the Year medal; the Public Health Association of Australia’s Sidney Sax medal; and was a NSW finalist in Australian of the Year. He was deputy editor (1992-1997) then editor (1998-2008) of the British Medical Journal's, Tobacco Control and is now its Editor Emeritus. He was made an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2013 and was named Australian Skeptic of the Year

His recent research involves examining policy how health and medical issues are covered in the news media; how people stop smoking unaided; the psychogenic aspects of wind farms and health; and characteristics of public health research (and its dissemination) which impact on public health policy.

Why anecdotes aren't strong evidence when it comes to quitting smoking

Aug 07, 2017 08:36 am UTC| Insights & Views Health

In the early 1990s, I was the guest of the local health service in Broken Hill, New South Wales, during a national week promoting quitting smoking. I went on the local radio and the host invited ex-smokers to call in and...

Wind farms are hardly the bird slayers they're made out to be. Here's why

Jun 17, 2017 16:20 pm UTC| Insights & Views Technology

People who oppose wind farms often claim wind turbine blades kill large numbers of birds, often referring to them as bird choppers. And claims of dangers to iconic or rare birds, especially raptors, have attracted a lot of...

World Trade Organisation gives Australia's plain tobacco packs the (draft) thumbs up

May 05, 2017 14:33 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has reportedly backed Australias laws on plain tobacco packaging implemented from December 2012. The apparent decision marks the end of the last of three cases brought against...

Apocalypse now: wifi and radiation sickness sweeping the world

Mar 21, 2017 00:06 am UTC| Health

In 2006, two researchers, Hallberg and Oberfeld, published a terrifying forecast in the journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine asking Will we all become electrosensitive?. The researchers extrapolated figures from...

Can we trust Big Tobacco to promote public health?

Mar 14, 2017 05:16 am UTC| Health Politics

Theres a new catchcry in public health: people working in tobacco control should join with Big Tobacco to promote safer tobacco products. It runs like this: before starting work each morning, tobacco company employees...

Colonoscopy: nothing to fear from the 'silver stallion'

Mar 06, 2017 02:07 am UTC| Health

I recently had a colonoscopy, an invasive medical procedure to examine the bowel, and was hugely relieved to get the all-clear. I posted a description of my experience to my friends on Facebook and got a range of...

On the pleasure of smoking

Dec 02, 2016 04:41 am UTC| Health

Repeatedly, studies have found a large majority of smokers regret ever starting to smoke: 85% in this study, 90% in this four nation study. Each year, some 40% of smokers make an attempt to stop, with most relapsing within...

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Economy

Trump Opens Tax-Exempt Dyed Diesel Access as Fuel Prices Surge

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday expanding access to tax-exempt dyed diesel as soaring fuel prices and global oil supply disruptions put pressure on American consumers and businesses. Under...

Australia Consumer Confidence Plunges as RBA Rate Hike Hits Households

Australian consumer confidence fell sharply in October as households grew increasingly worried about rising living costs, higher interest rates, personal finances and the jobs outlook, according to data released Tuesday by...

Samsung, SK Hynix Shares Fall Ahead of Q3 Earnings

Shares of South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix declined on Tuesday as investors turned cautious ahead of their third-quarter earnings reports, despite broader strength across the global semiconductor...

Asian Currencies Steady as Dollar Holds Near 18-Month High

Asian currencies traded mostly flat on Tuesday as the U.S. dollar remained close to an 18-month high, supported by elevated Treasury yields and persistent inflation concerns. The euro stayed under pressure near a 17-month...

Asian Stocks Rise as Nasdaq Record Offsets Bond Yield Pressure

Asian stocks traded mostly higher on Tuesday, supported by a record close on the Nasdaq, although surging U.S. Treasury yields and elevated oil prices kept investors cautious. Wall Street provided a positive lead after the...

Politics

Trump Envoy Meets Sudan Army Chief in Egypt

A senior envoy for U.S. President Donald Trump attended an event in Egypt alongside Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan as Washington continues efforts to find a political solution to Sudans devastating civil war....

France Student Protests Intensify Nationwide

France faced widespread high-school blockades and union-backed demonstrations on Tuesday as students stepped up pressure on President Emmanuel Macrons government over teacher shortages, deteriorating school buildings and...

Flavio Bolsonaro Surges as Family Scores Brazil Election Comeback

Brazils election delivered a dramatic political comeback for the Bolsonaro family, even though former President Jair Bolsonaro was not on the ballot. Bolsonaro, 71, is under house arrest while serving a 27-year sentence...

Trump Gaza Peace Plan Stalls as Israel Retains Control

US President Donald Trumps Gaza peace plan remains stalled a year after its launch, with Israel retaining control over roughly two-thirds of the enclave and continuing near-daily strikes despite an October 2025 ceasefire....

Trump Orders Firing Squad Execution for Fort Hood Gunman

President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of former U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas. Pentagon spokesperson Sean...

Science

Blue Origin New Glenn Explosion Could Delay Launch Operations Until 2028

Blue Origin is facing a significant setback after a dramatic explosion involving its New Glenn rocket severely damaged a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, repairs to the...

Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket Explodes During Launch Pad Test, Delaying Space Ambitions

Blue Origin suffered a major setback after its uncrewed New Glenn rocket exploded during a launch pad test in Florida on Thursday, raising new challenges for Jeff Bezos space company as it competes with Elon Musks SpaceX...

SpaceX Delays Starship V3 Launch Ahead of Potential Record IPO

SpaceX on Thursday postponed the highly anticipated launch of its 12th Starship rocket test from Texas after technical issues interrupted the final countdown. The company now plans to attempt the Starship V3 launch again...

Trump Administration Releases New UFO Files and Apollo Mission Records

The U.S. Defense Department has released dozens of previously classified UFO-related files following an order from President Donald Trump, sparking renewed debate over unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and government...

China vs. NASA: The New Moon Race and What's at Stake by 2030

The space race is back and this time, its a direct competition between the United States and China for dominance on the lunar surface. NASAs Artemis II mission recently made history when four astronauts flew farther into...

Technology

Zcash Prepares for NU7 Upgrade as Zebra Gets Key Security Fixes

The Zcash network is moving closer to its NU7 upgrade following a series of Zebra releases focused on security, performance and network stability. According to an engineering update from the official Zcash Foundation X...

OpenAI, Anthropic Back Mandatory AI Breach Reporting in Australia

OpenAI and Anthropic said they would support Australian laws requiring artificial intelligence companies to report data breaches caused by AI agents, as lawmakers consider tougher AI regulation following several security...

DeepSeek Seeks $12 Billion Funding Round Backed by Tencent, CATL

Chinese artificial intelligence powerhouse DeepSeek is preparing to raise at least 80 billion yuan ($12 billion) in a major funding round backed by Tencent and battery giant CATL, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. DeepSeek...

Nvidia-Backed Reflection AI Launches Beam Open-Weight Model

Nvidia-backed startup Reflection AI has launched Beam, its first open-weight artificial intelligence model, as the U.S. company looks to challenge lower-cost Chinese AI models in coding and agentic tasks. Reflection AI...

Meta and Microsoft Cut Internal Claude AI Use

Meta Platforms and Microsoft are reducing their internal reliance on Anthropics Claude AI models as both technology giants encourage employees to adopt proprietary artificial intelligence tools, according to a report from...