Author: Barnaby Page

Of course it was only to be expected that the World Health Organization (WHO) would include novel nicotine products in its annual condemnations for World No Tobacco Day, but the approach it took this year was significant: a focus on the environment…

Most tobacco companies are keen to be seen supporting the concept of harm reduction, especially through reduced-risk products like e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn and pouches. But how far is their support for the idea actually having an effect on their activities right now, as well as their future direction?…

Speaking at the launch of the seventh edition of the Atlas, US public health scholar Jeffrey Drope suggested that new nicotine technologies are “a huge distraction” which have “confused governments, the public health community and the public”…

The $16bn takeover of Swedish Match by Philip Morris International (PMI) now seems more likely to happen than not (at least as of today; these things are never certain until the last signature is signed)…

The long-mooted proposal to prohibit menthol is the most dramatic step the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken since the 2009 Tobacco Control Act exempted menthol from a general ban on flavoured tobacco…

Is the present system of peer-reviewed journal publication of scientific papers the best way to get the best science – particularly in the controversial world of tobacco? There are those who think it may not be…

Michele Mital’s appointment as acting head of the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) is not bad news for the industry, even if it’s not quite good news. And there may be bigger change at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)…

Broadening the appeal of tobacco harm reduction (THR) products in low- and middle-income countries can be an uphill struggle, though it arguably matters more there than anywhere else…

The Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) published a huge number of research abstracts to accompany its annual get-together – here are some of the highlights…

As the market for nicotine pouches swells, there is – just as with heated tobacco a few years ago – a risk that regulatory interest outpaces scientific research…

“Following the science” is one of the most misleading, clichés of the pandemic, and both advocates and enemies of novel tobacco products need to be cautious of claiming to do the same thing…

Acceptance by the US FDA of very-low-nicotine cigarettes as a modified risk product may be controversial, even bizarre, but it will be worth seeing how they perform in the market – and how that may affect future regulation of alternatives…

The heated tobacco sector has, compared with its cousin vapour, always suffered from a lack of scientific research and from the perception that most of what does exist is industry-funded…

The prospect of very-low-nicotine cigarettes becoming the next alternative product on the US market has come a significant step closer, with the FDA issuing modified risk orders for two products from 22nd Century Group…

Sooner or later the EU will have a new Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), and one of the big questions will be how it treats new product categories which barely existed at the time of TPD2…

Robert Califf’s expected return to head the US FDA has excited plenty of attention in the world of e-cigarettes, but there’s been much less talk about the likely impact on heated tobacco, pouches and other novel nicotine products…

Why won’t the World Health Organization (WHO) talk about tobacco alternatives? It’s never been shy before about putting forward its extreme scepticism…

While the decision to give marketing authorisation to some RJ Reynolds relates specifically to e-cigarette products, it’s highly likely that much the same priorities will govern official thinking on other alternative products…

Some light is now dawning on some truths long since suspected about the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s approach to tobacco-alternative products of all kinds through its cumbersome evaluation of e-cigarettes…

“Misinformation poses a real threat to progress” in a major area of public health concern, we’re told – and this time it’s about the dangers of tobacco-alternative products…

As the US Food and Drug Administration’s deadline to pass or reject e-cigarette premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) arrives, where does it leave the market and what might it mean for tobacco alternatives?…

Are we really in the midst of a “pandemic” of oral nicotine use by young people, and if so is the answer a flavour ban? 31 US attorneys general have some answering of their own to do…

Despite heated tobacco products being barely available in the US, it is now officially the next monstrous threat facing America’s youth…

Jacek Olczak, CEO of Philip Morris International (PMI), says the company could stop selling combustible cigarettes in the UK within a decade…

Philip Morris International (PMI) has always been one of the frankest tobacco companies when it comes to speaking of the smoke-free future – now it is taking positive steps in a bold new direction…

A new development in Japan sets an example which proponents of harm reduction could do well to advocate elsewhere – the increasing trend toward heated-tobacco-only areas in public spaces…

Two startling statistics emerge from a recent survey of smokers in Europe: nearly one in three (31%) of current smokers would be interested in trying snus if it became legal, but less than 3% are actually snus users…

Advocates for novel tobacco products often get infuriated with the oppositional stance taken by the World Health Organization – but might there be some fair reason behind the WHO’s less-than-enthusiastic view?…

News that Florida is planning to increase the purchase age for tobacco products to 21 is another clear indication of just how much the issues of youth smoking and youth vaping dominate the minds of politicians and regulators…

The big news from the US Food and Drug Administration last week was a ban on menthol in combustible cigarettes, closing off a loophole that had allowed this one flavour to be marketed even after all others were forbidden. It may not happen any time soon – the agency’s cautiously-worded announcement said only that it is “working […]…

As European health ministers met to discuss the EU’s Beating Cancer Plan, one influential organisation has pleaded for a rethink of its attitude toward alternative nicotine
products…

All advertising and public use of heated tobacco systems should be banned by governments, a World Health Organization (WHO) committee has suggested…

The US tobacco industry is resisting another attempt by the FDA to impose graphic health warnings, claiming in a lawsuit that mandatory warnings would violate their rights under the First Amendment…

Further evidence that reducing the amount of nicotine in combustibles does not lead to heavier smoking may provide encouragement for those who want to see reductions legally mandated…

Recent action by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) against a maker of nicotine-infused toothpicks highlights an obscure corner of the tobacco-alternatives business – consisting of products which are not vapour, heated tobacco or snus…

Philip Morris International (PMI) did not deliberately mislead investors about clinical trials for its Iqos heated tobacco system or about the product’s prospects in Japan, a US federal court has ruled…

The European Union’s member states overwhelmingly want harmonised tax policies across the EU for both heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes…

As the UK exits Europe and enters its 11-month period of transition, what does Brexit actually mean for cross-Channel relationships, and for tobacco harm reduction?…

A change of mind by the World Health Organization (WHO) is essential if the potential of tobacco harm reduction is to be fully achieved, according to a new report from British advocacy group Knowledge•Action•Change…

TobaccoIntelligence considers the effects the possible re-merger of Philip Morris International (PMI) and Altria might have on the combustible and alternatives markets in the US and beyond…

Is nicotine really as addictive as heroin, as the US surgeon general claims? And what does that really mean, anyway? ECigIntelligence pits the scientific evidence against the easy soundbite…

The UK will next year introduce one of Europe’s highest taxes for heated tobacco (heat-not-burn) products, following an announcement in the Chancellor’s budget…

Heated tobacco is grabbing headlines, but what else will it seize? We examine a number of market and regulatory scenarios with greatly differing outcomes for both heat-not-burn products and e-cigarettes…

The latest evidence review by Public Health England credits e-cigs with helping 20,000 people a year quit smoking, and blames distorted media reporting for that figure not being a lot higher…

Agency’s science committee agrees that PMI product decreases exposure to dangerous chemicals, but won’t accept broader claims of long-term risk reduction…

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will have to consider again next year the possibility that snus could be a reduced-risk form of tobacco, following a series of applications from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company…

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease has called for the advertising and indoor use of heat-not-burn (HnB) products to be banned until sufficient independent research has been conducted to confirm their safety…

The UK government committee which this month concluded that heat-not-burn products are safer than combustibles now wants to compare them to e-cigarettes…

The number of Google searches in Japan for topics related to heat-not-burn has rocketed, illustrating how rapidly the new nicotine technology has gained ground in that country…

Swedish Match has at last obtained some answers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on its attempt to have snus smokeless tobacco products classified as modified risk…