Reclaiming the narrative: countering harmful commercial discourses.

The discourses promoted by powerful commercial actors whose business activities are damaging to health undermine the potential for the transformational changes urgently needed to address pressing public health and environmental threats globally. This piece provides an analysis of corporate discursive practices and the mechanisms through which they contaminate scientific and policy debates and harm public and environmental health. We refer to this phenomenon as 'discursive pollution' to reflect the parallels between the effects of informational strategies and the commercial activities of harmful industries.

Tobacco Industry Engagement in the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee E-Cigarettes Inquiry.

Background: A now extensive literature has documented political strategies of health-harming industries (HHIs), but little is known about their engagement with parliamentary select committees. Recent investments by trans-national tobacco corporations (TTCs) in electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) has raised concerns that industry actors may be using these to re-engage policy-makers in ways precluded by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Article 5.3.

Tobacco industry narratives of e-cigarette use in the UK: a qualitative framing analysis.

Public health actors have expressed concerns over the entry of the tobacco industry into the UK e-cigarette market. It is important to be aware of the tobacco industry's involvement and stated aims for e-cigarettes in the UK, given their historical attempts to divert attention from and escape responsibility for the harms caused by combustible cigarettes. The use of e-cigarettes amongst young people in the UK has remained constant, despite the law prohibiting sales to adolescents and claims by manufacturers and others that they are designed solely as a tool to quit smoking.

Inhibition of Kornblum Reaction with Lithium Salts in S2 Reactions of Sulfonates and a Nucleophile Containing a Pyridine -Oxide Moiety: Convergent and Selective Synthesis of an MRGPRX2 Antagonist.

A critical step in the development of a convergent synthesis of an MRGPRX2 antagonist () was the S2 reaction with a highly functionalized lactamide electrophile and a unique difluoropiperidine nucleophile containing a pyridine -oxide moiety. Initial reactions with sulfonate leaving groups exhibited superb stereoselectivity, but yields were very low due to side reactions originated from competitive Kornblum reactions of the pyridine -oxide and the sulfonates. Markedly improved reaction profiles were achieved by including stoichiometric lithium triflate.