Michael B. Siegel is an American tobacco control researcher and public health researcher. He is a professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health.[1]

Education

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Siegel completed his residency in preventive medicine at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health and trained in epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control for two years.[1] His former mentor is tobacco-control activist Stanton Glantz.[2]

Work

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Siegel is known for his work in the area of tobacco control and the harmful effects of passive smoking.[1] However, in 2007, he published a paper dismissing claims that brief exposure to secondhand smoke increased the risk of heart attacks or presented any other significant cardiovascular risk to nonsmokers.[3] He has been called out for going astray by his former mentor Stanton Glantz who called him "a tragic figure - he has completely lost it," and "his view is that everybody in the tobacco control movement is corrupt and misguided except for him".[3] He also published a study in 2013 that found that in the United States, "states with higher rates of gun ownership had disproportionately large numbers of deaths from firearm-related homicides."[4] He published a similar study the following year, which concluded that "state-level gun ownership...is significantly associated with firearm and total homicides but not with non-firearm homicides."[5][6] In 2016, he and Emily Rothman published another study that found a "substantial" association between gun ownership rates and the rate at which women died from firearm homicide.[7][8] In July 2016, he and Rothman published another study that found a strong positive association between gun ownership rates and gun-related suicide rates in the United States. The same study found a strong association between gun ownership rates and overall suicide rates, but only among men.[9] He has also published research about how the soda industry spends millions on health organizations, yet simultaneously lobbies against public health laws intended to reduce consumption of their products.[10]

Views on electronic cigarettes

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Siegel has argued that electronic cigarettes could lead to conventional cigarettes becoming obsolete.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Michael B. Siegel, MD". Boston University. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  2. ^ a b Tavernise, Sabrina (22 February 2014). "A Hot Debate Over E-Cigarettes as a Path to Tobacco, or From It". New York Times. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  3. ^ a b Beam, Alex (13 November 2007). "Where there's smoke...there's Dr. Siegel". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  4. ^ Siegel, Michael; Ross, Craig S.; King, Charles (November 2013). "The Relationship Between Gun Ownership and Firearm Homicide Rates in the United States, 1981–2010". American Journal of Public Health. 103 (11): 2098–2105. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.457.8466. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301409. PMC 3828709. PMID 24028252.
  5. ^ Siegel, M.; Ross, C. S.; King, C. (16 April 2014). "Examining the relationship between the prevalence of guns and homicide rates in the USA using a new and improved state-level gun ownership proxy". Injury Prevention. 20 (6): 424–426. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2014-041187. PMID 24740937. S2CID 206980488.
  6. ^ DeFilippis, Evan (25 January 2015). "The Myth of the Good Guy With a Gun". Slate. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  7. ^ Siegel, Michael B.; Rothman, Emily F. (20 January 2016). "Firearm Ownership and the Murder of Women in the United States: Evidence That the State-Level Firearm Ownership Rate Is Associated with the Nonstranger Femicide Rate". Violence and Gender. 3: 20–26. doi:10.1089/vio.2015.0047.
  8. ^ "Study finds link between state gun ownership rates and murders of women". Phys.org. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  9. ^ Siegel, M; Rothman, EF (July 2016). "Firearm Ownership and Suicide Rates Among US Men and Women, 1981-2013". American Journal of Public Health. 106 (7): 1316–22. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2016.303182. PMC 4984734. PMID 27196643.
  10. ^ Aaron, DG; Siegel, MB (3 October 2016). "Sponsorship of National Health Organizations by Two Major Soda Companies". American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 52 (1): 20–30. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2016.08.010. PMID 27745783.
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