William J. Whitby

William J. Whitby was a physician and surgeon in private practice in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s.

= Biography =

Dr. Whitby was a pro-smoking advocate. He had no 'formal allegiance' with the tobacco industry, but was Vice-President of the Smokers Rights League.

Simon Chapman, a public health physician with the University of Sydney, Australia writes:


 * One of the more memorable characters in the Australian tobacco control landscape in the late 1970s and 1980s was Dr William Whitby, a pipe smoking lawyer and medical practitioner with a general practice in suburban Bondi Junction. In 1978, Whitby self-published a small book titled 'Smoking is Good For You'.  He followed this up in 1986 with a second volume titled 'The Smoking Scare De-Bunked'.  By this time he had also publicised widely his offer of a $10,000 reward for proof of smoking harm and his claim that because no one had  taken up the offer, his views were obviously correct. (The reason no-one took up his offer was that his definition of proof employed the same oleaginous sematics favoured by the tobacco industry and was always an unwinnable  propaganda exercise).

The industry documents display a consistent ambivalence within the tobacco industry about Whitby: those who had met him found him eccentric and extreme with huge potential to be a loose cannon. They consistently noted that the industry should not openly associate with him. However, they were all unanimous in their view that he was good news for the industry and that behind-the-scenes efforts should be made to encourage him and promote his views.

resource_id=21996 resource_code=whitby_william_j search_term=William J. Whitby