TY - JOUR T1 - Conflicts and controversies in contemporary tobacco control JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - e1 LP - e2 DO - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2017-053727 VL - 26 IS - e1 AU - Ruth E Malone Y1 - 2017/03/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/26/e1/e1.abstract N2 - The path towards progress in public health has never been a smooth one, especially for efforts to protect the public from dangerous products. Health is deeply political, and one’s life chances, while partly a factor of inherited genetic tendencies, are also substantially shaped by policy decisions made by elected officials and agency personnel at a distant remove from one’s daily life. Those decisions, in turn, are influenced by campaign contributions, personal ideologies and world views, and the political climate of the moment. In some ways, it is amazing that we have made so much progress on tobacco control policy, given the forces arraigned against it.But it is not only ‘external’ battles that must be fought: within the tobacco control movement, progress has always been accompanied by struggles among those who share the goal of a tobacco-free world, or at the least a world with far less tobacco-caused disease and premature death. Every policy innovation at one time had its doubters, detractors and critics, and some internal battles have been painful to watch.The current moment is no exception. This special issue focuses on some of the hot topics in tobacco control to highlight new work and new challenges. Among these hot topics: policies related to e-cigarettes, how the public appraises harm and safety, and the possible up and down sides of nicotine reduction or regulation of other ingredients in the product as a tobacco control strategy.Continuing the heated debates about regulating e-cigarettes and their use, two perspectives are offered on whether e-cigarette use should be permitted in smoke-free public places. Papers led by Chapman1 … ER -