Peter Beckett - Clearing the Air

EXCLUSIVE: “Rethink the status quo” – two former WHO directors call for radical overhaul of global nicotine policy

Two former Directors at the World Health Organisation have called for a radical overhaul of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - the WHO’s International Treaty on tobacco control policy - in an exclusive op-ed for Clearing the Air. Derek Yach, a…

News Legislation

OPINION: The Commission is trying to trick EU countries that support harm reduction. They must not fall for it.

UPDATE - 3rd November 2025 - we've now seen the version of the paper that will be discussed by EU Ambassadors on Wednesday. Possible bans on safer nicotine products are still part of the text. When EU negotiations go late into the…

News

OPINION: Belgium is becoming a narco-state, so the Government’s giving the gangs another market to play in: nicotine.

There are some upsides to living in Brussels, as I have done for much of my adult life. The tax system sucks, but the cost of housing is reasonable (for this London boy anyway), the schools and hospitals are great, and there’s…

News Legislation

EXCLUSIVE: EU to launch review of EU Tobacco Control law next year

The European Commission is to unveil its “evaluation report” on the EU’s Tobacco Control policy framework, according to a draft of the Commission’s work plan seen by Clearing the Air. The package will focus on the highly contentious Tobacco Products Directive, which…

News Harm Reduction

Voices of Harm Reduction Pt 9: Derek Yach

As we count down to the WHO’s bi-annual summit on tobacco control - which is increasingly used to spread misinformation about harm reduction, we sat down with former WHO Director for Non-Communicable Diseases Derek Yach. Derek’s had a long and fascinating career…

News

OPINION: Brussels must learn, disinformation is still disinformation when it’s politically convenient

On Wednesday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told Members of the European Parliament of how “appalled” she had become by the “disinformation that threatens global progress on everything from measles to polio”. “We need more capacity to…

Harm Reduction News

Voices of Harm Reduction Pt 8: Arielle Selya

Arielle Selya is a former academic turned consultant. She set out to prove that the “gateway hypothesis” - that vaping leads to smoking in young people - was real, but ended up disproving it. When many of her peers refused to listen…

News

How dare you comply with our ban? The hypocrisy of nicotine prohibitionists laid bare.

In twelve years working in and around advocacy for safer nicotine products, I’ve seen my fair share of hypocrisy from the prohibitionist wing of the tobacco control movement. It’s getting worse: we’re now seeing an EU Health Commissioner talk about vaping-induced popcorn…

News

OPINION: If vaping kills, what else are they lying about?

Olivér Varhelyi’s appointment as EU Commissioner for Health wasn’t a slam dunk. Members of the European Parliament - wary of the Hungarian nominee’s close ties to the country’s autocratic leader Viktor Orban - wanted assurances that his views on abortion (it’s often…

Subscribe to Newsletter