RegWatch by RegulatorWatch.com

Donald Trump campaigned on saving vaping. But under his watch, the FDA has seized more products than any previous administration and doubled down on the very anti-nicotine crusade he once promised to stop. In our ten years covering the U.S. Vaping industry never has the future looked so bleak. Joining us today to unpack the mounting contradictions of Trump’s FDA is Lindsey Stroud, THR policy exper...

Youth smoking in the United States has collapsed to historic lows, yet public health remains silent. At the same time, adult smokers are moving in record numbers to safer nicotine products, signaling a profound market shift that regulators struggle to keep pace with. In this episode of RegWatch, Dr. Chris Junker, Group Head of Life Sciences at British American Tobacco and former VP of Scientific &...

Donald Trump promised to save vaping. Twice. Once during his first term and again before winning the 2024 election. But in 2025, America’s vapers are feeling burned. Instead of delivering on his promise, Trump’s FDA staged the largest vape seizure in U.S. history while fast-tracking Big Tobacco’s nicotine pouches. Flavored vapes remain locked out and independent vaping shut out. It’s betrayal, and...

Vaping has long been under attack, smeared by myths and fear-driven campaigns. But now, one of North America’s leading public health physicians has stepped forward with a powerful rebuttal. In his newly released book Vaping Behind the Smoke and Fear, Dr. Mark Tyndall delivers a rare and authoritative critique of public health’s war on vaping. A veteran of HIV prevention and harm reduction, Tyndall...

Tobacco control is all virtue, no restraint. And when it deploys power, it does so as if it holds absolute moral authority: unquestionable, unforgiving, and unshakably certain of its final destination. It doesn’t ask “Does this reduce harm?” In this RegWatch public statement, we expose the divide between tobacco harm reduction and the ideology driving tobacco control. Moral absolutism rooted in re...

We’re entering a period of significant risk in the European Union, warns Peter Beckett. He’s the Brussels-based publisher behind Clearing the Air, a flagship news outlet covering tobacco harm reduction with deep reporting across Europe and growing impact in the UK, North America, and beyond. In this spontaneous episode of RegWatch, filmed on location at the 2025 Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw,...

A new study from Philip Morris International reveals that widespread misconceptions about nicotine are undermining tobacco harm reduction in clinical care. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. healthcare professionals, including primary care doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, mistakenly believe that nicotine causes cancer. In this episode of RegWatch, filmed on location at the 2025 Globa...

With all the trade tensions and tariff spats, there’s one U.S. export Europe could do without: the moral panic over vaping. Inexplicably, American-inspired fearmongering over safer nicotine products is reshaping EU policy and threatening tobacco harm reduction the world over. In this episode of RegWatch, filmed on location at the 2025 Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw, we sit down with Bill Wirtz...

The U.S. nicotine market is undergoing a historic upheaval, with safer nicotine products poised to outsell cigarettes for the first time ever. But instead of celebration, there is only silence. No fanfare from regulators. No cheers from tobacco control. Just business as usual: bans, moral panic, and an ongoing war on vaping. Why? In this episode of RegWatch, Dr. Derek Yach pulls back the curtain o...

Over the past decade, tobacco control has waged war on vaping. They have demonized, taxed, restricted, and banned safer nicotine products. They’ve misrepresented science and misinformed the public, all in a misguided effort to eliminate nicotine use entirely. But U.S. consumers aren’t buying it. They’re rejecting the panic, sidestepping the bans, and switching to nicotine vapes by the millions. Ac...

In public health, truth is supposed to be sacred. For decades, tobacco control defined and promoted the truth about combustible tobacco: cigarettes kill, nicotine is addictive, and the only path forward is to quit or die. But that truth, once necessary and urgent, has hardened into dogma. In this revealing episode of RegWatch, Dr. Jeff Willett, a 25-year tobacco control veteran and former senior l...

The FDA’s anti-vaping regime—once thought untouchable—is being dismantled. Mass layoffs, shuttered offices, and the removal of Brian King as Director of the Center for Tobacco Products all signal a massive restructuring the U.S. vaping industry has long called for. Joining RegWatch to unpack the scope and significance of these unprecedented moves is Tony Abboud, Executive Director of the Vapor Tec...

Two seismic shocks have rocked the vaping industry. On Tuesday, Brian King—the embattled Director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products—was ousted, signaling a major shake-up at an agency widely blamed for sabotaging tobacco harm reduction. Then today, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear FDA v. Wages and White Lion, extinguishing hopes for judicial relief from the FDA’s broken PMTA process....

Nicotine doesn’t cause cancer—yet safer nicotine products like vapes and pouches remain under relentless attack. This, despite the role these products play in driving smoking rates to historic lows across the Western world. Why is the war on smoking turning into a war on nicotine? In this episode, Dr. Jonathan Foulds, Professor of Public Health Sciences and Psychiatry at Penn State University, joi...

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted marketing orders for 20 Zyn flavored nicotine pouch products—the first time the agency has authorized such products. The decision left many in the vaping world stunned—not just by the range of flavors greenlit, from cinnamon and citrus to coffee and peppermint—but by the FDA’s continued foot-dragging on e-cigarette approvals. Why the...

Professor Gerry Stimson, public health social scientist and co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine receives the 2023 Michael Russell Award in recognition of a lifetime’s commitment to evidence-based public health interventions. Hear his reaction to the award and thoughts about what’s coming next for GFN and tobacco harm reduction. Guest: Gerry Stimson, Co-founder, Global Forum on Nicotine / Di...

Hear how science drives the development of reduced-risk nicotine products at BAT, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies. And learn how it uses science to help ‘seal the deal’ with regulators. Guest: Dr. Summer Hanna, VP Scientific Regulatory Engagement, BAT RegWatch on GFN.TV (Rewind) https://bit.ly/4imjGcY Produced by Brent Stafford Original Airdate: July 7, 2023 Watch GFN Interviews every...

Could tobacco control be facing impending irrelevance? It may be the case considering safer nicotine products solve a problem many have spent entire careers trying to fix through blunt force and turning smokers into patients. Guest: Clive Bates, Tobacco Control Policy Expert, Counterfactual Consulting / Former Dir. of Action on Smoking and Health (UK) RegWatch on GFN.TV (Rewind) https://youtu.be/K...

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit targeting Demand Vape, a major distributor of flavored vaping products and an anchor supporter of RegWatch. The lawsuit accuses the company of fueling an illegal market, but critics argue that the real culprit is New York’s prohibitionist policies. RegWatch breaks down the case, exposes the dangers of vaping bans, and responds to this lat...

For many within public health, the war on tobacco is over—and the new enemy is nicotine. It’s an uncomfortable pivot, one that requires ignoring what may be the greatest public health achievement of the century: the collapse of smoking rates across the Western world. Instead of celebrating, tobacco control, regulators, and activists have turned their guns on safer nicotine products—demonizing vapi...

For two years, RegWatch has documented the mounting challenges faced by Ontario’s health service providers—physiotherapists, chiropractors, and massage therapists—who deliver essential rehabilitation treatments to victims of auto accidents. These critical practitioners are nearing a breaking point as outdated reimbursement rates and relentless administrative demands leave them burned out and patie...

Seeds of public health’s war on vaping were planted decades ago during the fight against secondhand smoke. What began as a strategy to combat smoking has evolved into a campaign of deception—one that distorts science, spreads misinformation, and undermines harm reduction. WATCH PART 1 NOW | Discover how the campaign began and set the stage for this explosive second installment—only on GFN.TV. Join...

The future of the U.S. vaping industry hangs in the balance. As Donald Trump prepares to retake the White House, his administration could dismantle FDA red tape and overhaul tobacco harm reduction—or let bureaucracy and big tobacco tighten their grip. In this episode of RegWatch, Brent Stafford interviews Clive Bates, renowned tobacco control policy expert, to unpack what’s at stake for millions o...

REWIND: Hear how a once skeptical drug policy advocate became convinced about the power of nicotine vapes to help make positive changes in the lives of the vulnerable. Guest: David Mackintosh, Director Operations, Knowledge Action Change / Drug Policy, Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocate RegWatch on GFN.TV (Rewind) Produced by Brent Stafford Original Airdate: June 2, 2023 https://youtu.be/j31MjapFLMY...

Tobacco use in U.S. prisons is akin to air, it’s ubiquitous. And like air, for the vast majority of the incarcerated the need to inhale tobacco smoke approaches desperation. Would providing access to nicotine vaping products fix the craving and maybe save lives? Find out in this interview with health and behaviour researcher Dr. Cheryl K. Olson. Guest: Cheryl K. Olson MPH, ScD, Health and Behavior...