Growing tobacco plants acquire metals from soil, fertilisers, and industrial pollution. Smoking liberates some of these metals from tobacco into smoke to be inhaled by the smoker and bystanders.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) has just published a Report of the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg).

While e-cigarettes are less harmful to health than tobacco cigarettes, the vapour from an e-cigarette contains substances and chemical impurities in concentrations that could be detrimental to heal

RIVM researchers Arie Havelaar and Arno Swart received the prestigious Best Paper Award 2014 of the Society for Risk Analysis.

In recent years the Netherlands has witnessed an increase in the number of cases of gastroenteritis caused by the Campylobacter bacterium.

At the request of State Secretary Martin van Rijn (VWS), RIVM is carrying out an investigation into the safety of e-cigarettes.

Safety of nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) cannot be confirmed because of the limited amount of published research in this area.