STS Colloquium, Thursday, October 8th - The Regulatory Governance of Nicotine in the UK
Department of Science, Technology and Society
Fall 2009 Colloquium Series
Speaker: Catriona Rooke, Science and Society, University of Nottingham
Title: The Regulatory Governance of Nicotine in the UK
Date: Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Time: 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: Rodman Room (A207), Thornton Hall
Abstract:
Recently, within the tobacco control community, there has been growing concern that the division of regulatory responsibility for conventional tobacco products (i.e. cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco) and alternative modes of nicotine delivery (or ?Nicotine Replacement Therapies’ (NRTs) such as gums, patches and inhalers) is having a negative effect on the reduction of smoking rates in industrialized countries (MHRA 2006). The ?alternatives’ are mainly regulated as pharmaceuticals; therefore, must reach safety standards comparable with those required for medications rather than being compared with the known harm caused by tobacco smoking. This paper will draw on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) ideas (particularly Latour, 1988; Law, 1987) to study the evolution of this divided responsibility in the United Kingdom, particularly how NRTs came to be regulated as pharmaceuticals.
I draw on scientific, policy and legal documents, together with oral history interviews, to explore the regulatory decisions taken in the UK in respect of the first NRT: a nicotine-containing gum developed in Sweden. This gum, as /Nicorette/, became available in the UK in 1980 as a prescription only medicine under the 1968 Medicines Act. It is proposed that utilizing ANT to explore the development of nicotine gum and the regulatory decisions taken about it in the UK, places these decisions into the wider context of ideas about tobacco control and addiction, and helps to better understand how different substances such as tobacco, nicotine and nicotine gum acted in different networks, leading to very different systems of regulation. More broadly, this paper explores the possibilities that ANT provides for shedding light on a historical case study, as well as whether ANT has the potential to be a useful tool for studying regulatory governance.
Brief Bio:
Catriona is a graduate student at the Institute for Science and Society at the University of Nottingham (UK). She has an undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of Newcastle and a masters degree in Social Research from the University of Aberdeen. Catriona will be visiting through a U21 travel scholarship [Universitas 21, an international network of 21 leading research-intensive universities in 13 countries - UVa is the only American University]. Catriona is
working on a project that explores the evolution of regulatory strategies in relation to Nicotine Replacement Therapies and their implications for product innovation and harm reduction. She is currently investigating the utility of Actor-Network Theory for exploring these issues.
