Bücher von Ronald Bayer

This open access book offers the first in-depth study of the history and current debates surrounding electronic cigarettes comparing the UK, US and Australia. Since their introduction, e-cigarettes have been the subject of much public, media and regulatory attention, with discussion centring on whether these devices encourage or discourage smoking. This study delves into the history of policymaking and institutions in three countries which have taken different approaches to the regulation of e-cigarettes. In the UK, the tradition of harm reduction through nicotine has helped form a response which has endorsed e-cigarettes, though not without considerable controversy. In contrast, the US has a cessation-only anti-tobacco agenda, and Australia has effectively banned e-cigarettes. This book argues that each country frames the long-term use of nicotine differently and prioritises the health of different groups within the population of smokers or non-smokers, set against a broad backdropof national responses to addiction. By taking this comparative approach, the authors explore the relationship between history, evidence and policy in public health more widely.

Addressing broad debates about the nature of secrecy, morality, and silence, this book explores public policy questions in the light of the nuanced, private decisions that are shaping the course of an epidemic and have broader indications for all.

In 1973, after several years of bitter dispute, the Board of Trusteesof the American Psychiatric Association decided to remove homosexuality from its official list of mental diseases. Infuriated by theBoard's action, a substantial number of dissident psychiatristscharged the association's leadership with capitulating to the pressuresof Gay Liberation groups, and forced the board to submit its decisionto a referendum of the full APA membership. Ronald Bayer presentsa political analysis of the psychiatric battle involved, from the firstconfrontations organized by gay demonstrators at psychiatric conventions to the referendum initiated by orthodox psychiatrists. The result is a fascinating view of the individuals who led the debate and the fundamental questions that engaged them: social and cultural values, the definition of disease, and the nature of sexuality. Available for thefirst time in paperback, the book includes a new afterword by theauthor.