Articles by John Luik
John Luik
John Luik's Article Listing
Putting the government’s ignorance on display | John Luik
Article Published: 2009/01/05
In a recent piece in the London Review of Books, Ross McKibbin, commenting on the intellectual capacities of the current British government, observed that ‘the present cabinet has become the most lightweight in living memory. Some of its members are so lightweight they shouldn’t be in the cabinet at all…’ And nowhere is this absence of intellectual heft more apparent in the government’s new anti-tobacco strategy, announced this week.
Nutrition labeling on menu boards and menus: a recipe for failure | John Luik
Article Published: 16 January 2008
Concern about the United States’ population’s weight gain has led to a variety of policy proposals about how best to deal with what is often referred to as the “fattening of America.”
Who's afraid of … being fat? | John Luik
Article Published: 29 January 2008
The last few weeks have been a tough time for the fatties among us - which is supposedly most of us. According to the recent report from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund, being fat and eating certain foods increases our risk of cancer.
The hidden dangers of the smoking ban | John Luik
Article Published: 16 January 2008
In 1936, the American social scientist Robert Merton wrote an article in which he attempted to formalise what social scientists have long understood, but activists, policymakers and politicians have either ignored or denied. Merton argued that both individual and government actions have effects that are unforeseen, unintended and all too frequently unwelcome.
Contestable Conclusions | John Luik
Article Published: 29 January 2008
The World Cancer Research Fund’s new report proclaims three truths about cancer, fat, and food. First, it asserts that being fat increases our risk for cancer; second, it claims that eating certain foods gives us cancer; and, third, it suggests that cancer is “mostly preventable.”
The Invisible Killer and the Problem of Phantom Risk: Some Observations on the UK’s Flawed Risk Management Process | John Luik
Article Published: 24/08/2007
A Talk delivered to the Wilton Park Conference Managing Risk: Sensible Precaution or Fear of Trying 27 March, 2007
Just the facts, please: Judge Kessler’s new history of the tobacco wars - Part 2 | John Luik
Article Published: 22/08/2007
“Just the facts, please.” That’s what Jack Webb said week after week to both witnesses and villains alike on the classic television program Dragnet.
Regulation Redux: Still a bad prescription for smoker’s health | John Luik
Article Published: 25/07/2007
With the Democrats once again in control of Congress, the issue of the Food and Drug Administration regulation of the tobacco industry is very much back on the legislative agenda. Unfortunately, the legislation being offered this time round by Senators Kennedy (D), Cornyn (R)and Representatives Davis (R) and Waxman ( D) is essentially the same as that proposed three years ago when the idea of FDA regulation was linked to legislation on tobacco quotas.
Films | John Luik
Article Published: 20/07/2007
One of the “nice” things about the advocacy of the anti-tobacco lobby is how consistently silly, not to say nonsensical, its claims are. Unencumbered with the responsibilities of reputable research and rigorous analysis of whether their purported solutions really work, the anti-tobacco zealots are able to continue on year after year re-cycling to a lazy media their same sound-bite claims as the novel product of serious thinking on the hard problem of preventing smoking.
Separating trans fat from fiction | John Luik
Article Published: 24/12/2006
It’s clear that the trans fat prohibitionists haven’t at all established their case that trans fat is dangerous. So why the ban? Is it then merely a politically opportunistic response to public pressure? Not at all. Most people apparently don’t give a damn. So if neither public health concerns nor political pressures provide a reason for the ban movement, why is there a ban movement? The next couple of items may yield some clues.
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