MENTAL HEALTH, UNEMPLOYMENT, TOBACCO, WASTE, AND PIGS

In a bumper edition for summer, we include substantial contributions on two major threats to public health: tobacco and unemployment, and in addition we address the vexed issue of the role of psychosocial factors. All three topics are given a treatment that should generate a lively debate.

Starting with tobacco and the tobacco industry, a paper from Nicole Fields and Simon Chapman from Australia (Simon being the Editor of our sister journal, Tobacco Control) throws light on the scandalous efforts of the purveyors of death and disease and one of the major weapons of mass destruction, namely the tobacco industry, to exert undue influence on a leading scientist in the field of tobacco research, Ernst Wynder. Two linked editorials explore the questions raised, and in particular the responsibilities of academics and researchers in relation to funding sources. See pages 571, 546, 548

A paper by Blakely and colleagues from New Zealand, with a population of over two million, concludes that unemployment was associated with a twofold to threefold increased relative risk of death by suicide, compared with the employed. About half …