Colin graduated as a doctor from the University of Sydney in 1976 with honours. He was a Sydney GP for 27 years with a special interest in smoking cessation and then worked for ten years exclusively in tobacco treatment, helping smokers to quit.
He has an interest in all aspects of smoking cessation and tobacco control with a special interest in tobacco harm reduction – helping smokers who can’t quit to switch to safer nicotine products, such as vaping.
He was a Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales, Sydney from 2016-20.
Colin has conducted hundreds of workshops and lectures around Australia and New Zealand teaching students, medical practitioners, and other health professionals how to help smokers quit.
From 1987-97 he was actively involved through the University of New South Wales in researching, developing and teaching Smokescreen for the 1990s, a program for general practitioners to help smokers quit.
He retired from medical practice in December 2023 and retired from advocacy, teaching and research in November 2024. However, he will be continuing with any ongoing commitments until they are resolved.
Publications
Colin is a strong believer in evidence-based medicine, i.e. using treatments that are proven to be effective in scientific studies. He has participated in many research studies on how to quit smoking and has published many articles in peer-reviewed medical journals. Click here to see or download some of his publications.
Other activities
Colin was a member of the Smoking Cessation Guideline Expert Advisory Group that develops the RACGP Australian national smoking cessation guidelines.
He was the Founding Chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, a registered health promotion charity dedicated to raising awareness of low-risk nicotine products as a substitute for smoking for smokers who can’t quit.
He was a past Vice President of the Australian Association of Smoking Cessation Professionals, Australia’s peak body for experts in the field of smoking cessation.
He was also on the Expert Advisory Group for the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (CAPHRA) and was an honorary mentor for the Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Program, under the auspices of Knowledge Action Change, UK. He was an Honorary adviser for the ALIVE advocacy movement (Australia Let’s Improve Vaping Education!).
He has served on the NSW Health Advisory Committee on Electronic Cigarettes and was on the Vaping Cessation Expert Panel for the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), commissioned by Ontario’s Ministry of Health.
He has been a reviewer for a range of peer-reviewed medical journals such as the British Medical Journal, Drug and Alcohol Review, Harm Reduction Journal, MedicineToday and the prestigious Cochrane Tobacco Group.
For 16 years, he was the editor of Your Health newsletter, a health education newsletter distributed by over 1,600 Australian GPs to their patients.
Awards
Michael Russell Award, 2024
The Award honours someone who “has made a substantial and innovative contribution to the science and understanding of safer nicotine products and tobacco harm reduction”. The award is presented each year at the Global Forum on Nicotine in memory of Professor Michael Russell, a psychiatrist and research scientist, who was a pioneer in the study of tobacco dependence and the development of treatments to help smokers quit. [more] [award ceremony]
Most Supportive Public Health Professional/Researcher, UKVIA 2023
This award “recognises the contribution that a public health professional has made to speaking up for vaping. The judges will be looking for the actions taken to promote vaping in a public health capacity. This could include, but is not limited to, challenging and/or correcting misinformation, helping educate colleagues or the public about the relative health risks associated with smoking and vaping, being involved in vaping initiatives in a healthcare environment, or speaking about vaping at events and conferences” (UK Vaping Industry Association) [more]
Research
Colin has been an investigator on many clinical trials on smoking and vaping. We are looking forward to the publication of our latest study at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, later this year:
Adding an electronic-cigarette to standard behavioural treatment for low-socioeconomic status smokers: A randomised trial
Disclosures
I have never received payments from electronic cigarette or tobacco companies.
I was an unpaid Board member of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA) from October 2017 – January 2021 when it accepted:
- Unconditional seed funding from the vape retail industry. Funding ceased March 2019
- A donation from KAC Communications in March 2018, sourced from a surplus arising from the Global Forum on Nicotine conference in May 2017
Invited speaker at World Vape Show Conference 2022 (Dubai). Travel expenses paid. No honorarium.
Author of the book, Stop Smoking Start Vaping.
