Parallels and contrasts between tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking are considered, in terms of harms, cultural positioning, and a dependence, which is social as well as physical and psychological. Evidence is briefly reviewed of two kinds of conjunction: of being a smoker and being a drinker, and of the smoking event and the drinking event. The complementary relation between smoking and drink...

INTRODUCTION For any health intervention, accurate knowledge of both benefits and harms is needed. Systematic reviews often compound poor reporting of harms in primary studies by failing to report harms or doing so inadequately. While the PRISMA statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) helps systematic review authors ensure complete and transparent reportin...

Debates about dual-use research often turn on the potential for scientific research to be used to benefit or harm humanity. This dual-use potential is conventionally understood as the product of the magnitude of the harms and benefits of dual-use research, multiplied by their likelihood. This account, however, neglects important social aspects of the use of science and technology. In this paper...

Harm reduction is usually used as an umbrella term to define interventions, programmes and policies that seek to reduce the health, social and economic harms of substance use to individuals, communities and societies. But definitions of harm reduction are also contested. At the same time, a variety of challenges face the development and implementation of harm reduction policies in Europe and el...

The recent review of taxation in Australia - the Henry tax review - has recommended that the federal government increase the taxes already levied on tobacco and alcohol. Tobacco and alcohol taxes are put forward as the best way of reducing the social harms caused by the use and misuse of these substances. Junk foods have the same pattern of misuse and the same social costs as tobacco and alcoho...

There is potential for over-provision of environmental harms and under-provision of environmental benefits associated with GM crops. As a result, strong public regulation is needed to ensure that full social values are considered. However, one reason for opposition to GM crops is a lack of public trust in regulatory institutions and science, and the limited opportunities afforded to public-part...

Social mix policies have become controversial. Claims about the harms caused by neighbourhood effects have been challenged while counter-claims have been made about the potential benefits for low-income households from living in poor communities. This paper examines two aspects of this debate: whether deprived communities provide greater access to social networks and hence resources in the form...