GFN News

Is regulation keeping up with the evidence? As the European Union considers the future regulation of non-combustible tobacco and nicotine products, an important question emerges: is the available scientific evidence being assessed fully, consistently and transparently? In this Science Lab presentation, Carrie Wade examines the EU’s Better Regulation Framework and the evidence used in the recent ev...

Dr. Joe Kosterich first took an interest in nicotine vapes when patients who struggled to quit smoking quit thanks to vaping. Then Australia made the products they relied on nearly impossible to buy legally. Shot on location at GFN 2026 in Warsaw, the Australian GP explains how restrictions drove vape sales into the black market, where consumers face unregulated products and criminal gangs fight f...

What does the current evidence tell us about the cardiovascular impact of novel tobacco and nicotine products? In this presentation from Global Forum on Nicotine 2026, Dr. Thomas Nahde discusses a narrative review examining cardiovascular health and the potential impact of switching from combustible cigarettes to non-combustible nicotine products. The review brings together 221 publications, cover...

France has recently prohibited nicotine pouches. Jean-François Etter discusses what prohibition could mean for consumers, quality control, illicit markets and criminal groups and why the demand for nicotine pouches may not simply disappear.

What Does Real-World Use Tell Us About Blu? | #GFN26ScienceLab by GFN.TV

A clear and worsening division within public health has turned the debate over nicotine into a moral panic, with potentially dire consequences. Shot on location at GFN 2026 in Warsaw, Poland, longtime nicotine researcher and former University of Geneva professor of public health Jean-François Etter examines the irrational push to prohibit safer nicotine products. He explores public health groupthi...

A harm reduction approach should not stop at those who are still smoking. What about the millions who have already moved to safer nicotine products - and still depend on access to them? If public health is about reducing harm, shouldn’t their voices count too?

Which oral nicotine products carry the greatest risk to oral health? In this GFN Science Lab presentation, Helen Cowie examines how the shift from smoking to smokeless and oral nicotine products changes the way tobacco harm reduction should be assessed. The discussion explores the current evidence on oral health risks across different product categories, including combustible cigarettes, tradition...

A safer alternative exists - but why is it so often treated differently? When harm reduction depends on meeting people where they are, where do smokers fit in? The answer may challenge some long-held assumptions about nicotine, choice, and public health.

How does the scientific evidence on heated tobacco products (HTPs) compare with what we know about cigarette smoking? In this presentation from the GFN Science Lab, Dr. Leonie Price takes a look at multiple layers of evidence surrounding heated tobacco products — from aerosol chemistry and toxicant emissions to biomarkers of exposure, environmental exposure, and the behavior of smokers who switch...

In the global war on nicotine, many are pushed to the margins. It’s not just smokers who no longer count. Adults who’ve already made the switch to safer nicotine no longer count. Independent vape retailers, consumer advocates and accomplished scientists and researchers are shunned and sometimes silenced. Even the proven real-world consequences of prohibition no longer count. Shot on location at th...

Banning products doesn’t necessarily eliminate demand. Prohibition can push consumers toward black markets, reduce regulatory control, and create unintended consequences for public health. Timur Abdullaev explored prohibition, tobacco harm reduction, nicotine policy, and the challenges of trying to reduce smoking through increasingly restrictive policies. He also examined why nicotine, tobacco, an...

Nasvay is a traditional smokeless tobacco product widely used across Central Asia, particularly in Kyrgyzstan. Often produced on a small or household scale, it sits in a complex space between tradition, affordability, tobacco use and harm reduction. This presentation explores nasvay through the experience of Renat, a producer from Kyrgyzstan who demonstrates how the product is made and explains it...

Does prohibition protect public health - or can it make the problem worse? At #GFN26, Brent Stafford speaks with Alex Wodak and Ian Fearon about the unintended consequences of prohibition, the rise of illicit nicotine markets, and the growing divide over tobacco harm reduction. The conversation also examines a contentious issue within public health: why, according to Fearon, good-quality science o...

Nicotine Pouches in Scandinavia - How Sales Have Changed From 2018 to 2025? | #GFN26ScienceLab by GFN.TV

It’s no secret Big Tobacco’s legacy has complicated the case for tobacco harm reduction within public health. But long-standing distrust of the industry is also a barrier for many within the traditional drug harm reduction community, limiting support for safer nicotine products. Shot on location at GFN 2026 in Warsaw, Poland, Gaby Zabala Alemán explains how the National Harm Reduction Coalition is...

Can governments enforce their way out of the illicit market crisis? Brent Stafford speaks with Asa Saligupta and Rohan Pike about prohibition, enforcement and the growing illicit nicotine market.

Understanding what consumers think, feel, and do is essential to generating robust evidence on tobacco and nicotine products. In this GFN Science Lab session, Christelle Chrea discusses the role of consumer-reported outcome measures (CROMs) in tobacco and nicotine research, and the challenges involved in measuring consumer perceptions, behaviours, and experiences. The session explores the distinct...

What happens when a government bans safer nicotine alternatives instead of regulating them? In this GFN Voices episode from #GFN26, Brent Stafford speaks with Dr. Mariana Hoyo (Mexico) and Gina Reyes (Colombia) about how two neighboring countries have taken very different approaches to vaping—and what those policies mean for public health.

How do people actually transition between different nicotine products over time? Are young people who experiment with e-cigarettes more likely to become smokers, and is dual use a long-term pattern or simply part of the journey away from cigarettes? Drawing on a decade of data from the U.S. Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, this presentation explores how nicotine product us...

Prohibition cannot eliminate consumer demand. It’s an iron rule of free markets. As lower-risk nicotine products remain stuck under FDA review, illicit products proliferate to fill the void. Shot on location at GFN 2026 in Warsaw, Poland, Altria’s Dr. Mohamadi Sarkar argues that slow authorization decisions have left regulators playing enforcement “whack-a-mole” while adult smokers wait for more F...

The debate over prohibition often focuses on intentions, but the real question is whether restrictive policies achieve their public health goals. As governments around the world consider tighter controls on nicotine and tobacco products, evidence continues to raise important questions about the unintended consequences of prohibition, including the growth of illicit markets, the role of organized c...

How much nicotine remains in a nicotine pouch after months of storage? And can formulation design improve long-term stability? In this presentation, Anna Balconi explores preliminary research comparing conventional microcrystalline cellulose (MCC)-based nicotine pouches with a novel semi-gel-based formulation developed by Alchem NicSelect. The study examines how nicotine content changes over time...

Despite decades of prohibition, smoking remains one of the leading preventable causes of disease and death worldwide. So why do policies that restrict safer alternatives often fail to improve public health? Leading experts examine the unintended consequences of prohibition, arguing that banning lower-risk nicotine products does not eliminate demand—it simply shifts consumers toward illicit markets...

What’s really inside nicotine pouches? While these products are often treated as a single category, their composition can vary significantly. In this GFN Science Lab presentation, Lindsay Reese presents one of the largest compositional analyses of nicotine pouches to date, covering 446 fully tested products from 2025 (drawn from more than 500 products analyzed). The research explores key character...