Clive Bates

One hundred specialists call for WHO to change its hostile stance on tobacco harm reduction - new letter to FCTC delegates published. clivebates.com/one-hundred-sp… #COP9 @DrTedros 1/2

Panama’s Supreme Court overturning the 2022 vape ban is a major moment for Tobacco Harm Reduction. The ruling shows how legal advocacy, public engagement, and evidence-based arguments can challenge prohibitionist policies and protect access to lower-risk alternatives for adults who smoke. But the fight isn’t over. New legislative proposals could still introduce highly restrictive measures that risk undermining harm reduction efforts. Read more: tobaccoharmreduction.net/article/panama…

No name calling, no smears just absolute facts from Dr Alex Wodak Australia’s steep cigarette excise increases and restrictive vaping policies have fuelled a massive illegal tobacco market while undermining the country’s long-standing harm-minimisation approach to public health. pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/05/a…

@CTFKGlobal Thanks, but no thanks. We do not need corrupting, mendacious American billionaire money doing even more harm in Europe.

Important conversations at the European Conference on Tobacco or Health (#ECToH2026) this week, where @CTFKGlobal staff highlighted research and advocacy focused on protecting public health and countering tobacco industry influence. Elissa Laitin presented a poster session examining advocacy efforts to disrupt tobacco industry partnerships with celebrities, while Jasmine Keng spoke during a formal conference session on indoor air quality monitoring and the role smoke-free public spaces can play in creating healthier cities in Bosnia & Herzegovina. From challenging industry marketing tactics to advancing healthier public environments, these discussions reflected the broad range of work underway to reduce the harms caused by tobacco and nicotine products.

A self-experiment: I tried to switch from vaping to using only nicotine pouches for 72 hours. And I did, not one puff. I guess i *could* switch completely, but to be honest, I miss vaping's hand-to-mouth action, the throat hit, the exhaling and inhaling etc. So, I won't. 1/2

By adopting a more pragmatic understanding of youth tobacco use and adult consumer demand, the FDA can better support public health and more effectively address the illicit market. | Forefront @JeffreyGWillett, et al. | @ppi healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/for…

@GrimmGreen One good thing: Australia provides an internationally visible case study in what not to. Could become their greatest contribution to public health.

Did you guys hear about the Australian illicit tobacco market?

CC; @HexisCapital @pieterwvorster1 @JonFell73 startup will use 27 indicators to assess tobacco and nicotine industry transition, evaluate strategy and hold management to account. It’s a form of ethical investment (in my view) because it aims to accelerate change for the better.

Very interesting development in the tobacco / nicotine investment world. An active investor vehicle to promote industry-wide transition to low-risk alternatives to cigarettes. Saw a presentation from them and it looks v promising (for public health: not investment advice!).

Another public health triumph unfolding in Australia.

The video acts like the FDA is “giving your health away” because adults can choose flavored vaping products instead of cigarettes. Nobody is forced to vape. Adults are choosing alternatives reviewed under the APPH standard with built-in age verification. “Public health” now seems to mean protecting cigarettes from competition.

The EU has opened a Call for Evidence which will run from 18 May 2026 - 15 June 2026. "The EU intends to update its tobacco control rules in response to the latest market developments, consumption trends and digital marketing practices" ec.europa.eu/info/law/bette…

Older Americans have been left behind by decades of smoking cessation progress. While U.S. adult smoking fell from more than 40% in the early 1960s to less than 10% in 2024, smoking among adults 65 and older did not decline from 2011 to 2022. That is not just a lag. It is a major policy failure. 🔗 Read the full study by Jeffrey S. Smith here: bit.ly/4nxmAQ4

"Skyrocketed" from 4.5% to 6.5%. Seriously? And there is the important matter of displacing smoking, thereby reducing harm.

I hope you know that seizing 18 million illegal vapes does not mean sales of illegal vapes fall by 18 million. Behind every seized container, there’s another ready to take the revenue. Which is perversely good news, because if seizures did have a major effect, part of that effect would be to drive a return to smoking and harm public health a different way. That would be your public health achievement. The only way to address this is to allow legal supply to crowd out illicit trade. That means @FDATobacco authorising far more of the vaping products that adults wish to use as alternatives to cigarettes. It really is that simple and the only appropriate path for the protection of public health.

Team work makes the dream work. As a part of Operation Red Mist, CBP officers in collaboration with the @US_FDA and @USCG, seized more than 18 million illegal vapes. These seizures are valued at over $175M. Protecting the health of America is a vital part of the CBP mission. Read: go.dhs.gov/53r

What’s interesting is @FDA could eliminate the entire illicit market in a matter of months by authorizing some nicotine vaping products that people actually want to use.

@jgitchell @LanceChurchill @plopnl @BradRodu @cdoug @mbsiegel @jkelovuori I had a similar reflex when I read Mein Kampf 40 years ago: it was awful, almost shameful, to read but illuminating to have a first-person account of a mendacious, cruel and inhuman ideology in the words of its most repulsive proponent.

@LanceChurchill @plopnl @Clive_Bates @BradRodu @cdoug @mbsiegel @jkelovuori Thanks, Lance. As much as I struggled to read Ling & Glantz, it is so helpful to be challenged by competing perspectives.

Stanton Glantz is still recommending that it is better for people to keep smoking instead of switching to more harmful e-cigarettes! I don't have access to the full article, but the preview makes it clear. @Clive_Bates @BradRodu @cdoug @mbsiegel nature.com/articles/s4156…

The only reason to engage with this @WHO post and report on nicotine pouches is to read the excoriating community note.

@Clive_Bates @WHO And yet nicotine gum and lozenges - almost identical to nicotine pouches - are on the @WHO essential drugs list of essential medicines 🤨

Who can look at this Euromonitor map of illicit vape share, globally over 75%, and think "yes, that's totally what we need to achieve for nicotine pouches"? Yet, @WHO is soon to release a new hysteria-driven, foundation-funded report, arguing that vastly safer pouches are a major health risk and should be banned where possible and regulated and taxed out of existence where not banned. Source: euromonitor.com/newsroom/press…

3/3 I am not going to disregard industry input because it suits some clueless factions in public health to dismiss industry arguments on principle. These comments the high-quality work of realists trying to get important things done. We should be learning and listening.

2/3 I'm also giving a shout to: Don Kenkel and Alan Mathios at Cornell University: clivebates.com/documents/FDAF… Also, a rigorous science/legal case from Altria: clivebates.com/documents/FDAF… ...and industry coalition, Regulate Smarter clivebates.com/documents/FDAF…

1/3 Anyone who wants to be across the debate on flavoured vapes (a distracting debate created and sustained by tobacco control fanatics) cannot do better than read the @JuulLabsInc comment on flavoured vapes. US focus, but the concepts are universal PDF: juullabs.com/wp-content/upl…