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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

What should you do if you can’t pay your rent or mortgage?

The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

Reducing energy demand and improving efficiency will help prevent the next gas crisis

Gas prices have relaxed, Europe has come out of the winter with record gas storage levels and a surfeit of liquefied natural gas is set to reach the shores of Europe over the coming years. Many commentators are hopeful...

Minimum wage for South African farm workers: study shows 2013 hike helped reduce poverty even though compliance was poor

Minimum wage policies are typically aimed at reducing poverty. Yet there is little direct evidence of this effect, especially in developing countries. And none for South Africa. In a recent paper, we consider the...

Gas is good until 2050 and beyond, under Albanese gas strategy

The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel through to 2050 and beyond. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuels uses would change over...

South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed

The South African governments Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan was launched in November 2023. It is a roadmap guiding the country away from reliance on coal-fired power towards renewable energy alternatives by...

Politics

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

Former President Donald Trump reportedly proposed a $1 billion deal to oil executives, offering to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in return for campaign funding, according to The Washington Post. This move underscores...

US Supreme Court upended decades of precedent in 2022 by allowing voters to vote with gerrymandered maps instead of fixing the congressional districts first

For the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use congressional districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens. A 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in February...

Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections

Ahead of the European parliament elections in June, Germany has lowered the age limit on participation to 16. This makes it the largest of just a handful of states in the EU to allow people under the age of 18 to vote....

South Africa will be president of the G20 in 2025: two much-needed reforms it should drive

South Africa will play an important international role in 2025 as president of the G20. The G20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the African Union and the European Union. Between them they represent 85% of global...

What early 2024 polls are revealing about voters of color and the GOP

By the end of winter 2024, the return of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP presidential ticket has revealed a surprising trend in the former presidents base of support: his increasing popularity among Black and Latino...

Science

Is dark matter’s main rival theory dead? There’s bad news from the Cassini spacecraft and other recent tests

One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics today is that the forces in galaxies do not seem to add up. Galaxies rotate much faster than predicted by applying Newtons law of gravity to their visible matter, despite those...

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without...

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

Technology

Massive SHIB Transfers Occur Despite Sharp Decline in Shibarium Transactions

Shiba Inu (SHIB), a dog-themed cryptocurrency, has seen a startling 3,015% increase in large holder NetFlow, which provides insight into whales changing positions. However, this impressive surge comes with a...

SHIB Whale Activity Surges Amid Plummeting Shibarium Transaction Volumes

While the Shiba Inu developer team continues to work on and implement key updates to the Layer-2 blockchain, Shibarium is seeing a significant drop in transaction volume, which has been ongoing for about a month. This...

AirTag With New Chip and Improved Tracking Due Next Year; No New Mac Studio, Pro Until Mid-2025: Mark Gurman

Apples upcoming AirTag, equipped with an upgraded chip and enhanced tracking, is expected to launch by mid-2025, as detailed by Bloombergs Mark Gurman. He also claimed that Apple will not update the Mac Studio and Mac Pro...

Shibarium Faces 97% Drop in Transactions, Yet Transfers Rise Steadily

High FDVs on Binance Listings Lead to Investor Losses, Analysis Reveals

An analysis of Binance listings over the past six months reveals that high fully diluted valuations often lead to token value loss, adversely affecting regular investors while benefiting insiders. VC-Backed Tokens on...