Introduction: Before E-Cigarettes—The Pre-history of Public Health, Tobacco and Nicotine in the UK, Australia and the US

The comparative study arose from our curiosity about why poli-cies towards e-cigarettes were so different in the UK and Australia, two countries with a shared public health history. The US was added as a case study to see how its unique history of tobacco activism and anti-tobacco activism prefigured and influenced its e-cigarette policy. We outline the history of tobacco policy in the context of public health in each country, showing that a major change occurred after World War II, when tobacco became a key issue of public health concern. All the countries developed stances hostile to tobacco smoking and to the tobacco industry, but differ-ences in the way this was done helped to inform their policies towards e-cigarettes, which cover a spectrum of tolerance. An important source of divergence between the three countries was a history of policy in the UK favouring a harm reduction approach to nicotine. In the US and Australia, while nicotine was used as individual therapy, it was in pursuit of a cession-only strategy.