TobaccoIntelligence Exclusive for GFN 2026
As authorities around the world shift towards tighter regulation of next-generation nicotine products, the upcoming Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) – from 3–5 June in Warsaw, Poland – will explore the ways in which this more prohibitive stance will impact public health. Doctors, public health consultants, behavioural science experts, human rights lawyers, community activists, survivors of HIV and tuberculosis, and experts in addiction and substance misuse from all over the world will come together to explore the ethics and social impact of prohibition and delve into some of the science cited as evidence to support prohibitive policies, before presenting potential counterarguments.
How does prohibiting safer alternatives to tobacco sit with the Hippocratic oath? And what are some of the consequences of allowing smokers’ health and wellbeing to be collateral damage in ‘the war on the nicotine industries’? These are some of the questions that will be raised by public health experts and behavioural science consultants working in the areas of tobacco control and smoking cessation, addiction and substance misuse in the session, ‘The impact of prohibition on health and ethics’.
‘Doctors for more tobacco harm reduction’ Garret McGovern – medical director of a private addiction programme in Ireland – and Canadian Mark Tyndall – who is internationally recognised for his contributions to harm reduction and drug policy reform – will be calling for more progressive and ethical tobacco control policies as part of their discussion of the challenges physicians around the world face when it comes to harm reduction.
One of the most under-recognised challenges is how tobacco use contributes to the preventable mortality of patients with tuberculosis. This will be explored in the session ‘Confronting tuberculosis’, which brings together an HIV community activist, TB survivor and public health consultant from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. They will explore practical approaches to integrating tobacco harm reduction into tuberculosis responses, with the aim of strengthening prevention and improving access to treatment to support more effective lung health strategies.
How does prohibition impact disenfranchised people? Obstacles to integrating the principles of harm reduction into systems for those with poor mental health, addiction issues, economic and legal constraints and other issues is explored by doctors, consultants and harm reduction experts from across Europe in ‘Marginalised and hard to reach populations’.
Meanwhile, in Iberoamérica, the gap between innovation in tobacco harm reduction and legislation is fuelling an environment of increasing vulnerability, according to the presenters of ‘Consumers in limbo: the health and legal vulnerability of users in the face of prohibitions in Iberoamérica’. The panel of harm reduction activists, vaping advocates and human rights lawyers will discuss how integrated approaches to harm reduction in tobacco and drugs would improve health outcomes in countries where more punitive policies exist.
The ‘explosive’ growth of the illicit market for next-generation nicotine products is one of the unintended and counterproductive consequences of regulatory restrictions explored by the panel of public policy, human rights and harm reduction advocates in ‘The social impacts of prohibition’. Members of lower socioeconomic groups are more likely to put themselves at risk by purchasing more affordable uncompliant products on the black market, which means prohibitionist policies are more likely to have a detrimental impact on them as the illicit market expands.
Staying on the topic of social impact, female community leaders and human rights activists from Central Asia will explore how tobacco use intersects with gender, stigma and healthcare barriers. Presenters will share real-world examples from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in their session, ‘Empowering communities to address smoking among women’.
Amidst frequent calls for a more evidence-based approach to policy-making, physicians, scientists, pharmacologists and behavioural science consultants will be ‘Debunking the science used to support prohibition’. Focussing on several themes which are often used to push for stronger regulation or outright bans, the experts will dive into some of the science used to drive restrictions on novel tobacco and nicotine products, assessing the science base and presenting scientific counterarguments.
There are also four Science Labs in which experts will be presenting their lab-based or epidemiological research, modelling, market research on consumer behaviour, along with their actual or anticipated results. The fourth lab will have a focus on science and regulation and will be chaired by TamarindIntelligence’s editorial director Barnaby Page.
Page will also be hosting a session on the European Union’s (EU’s) revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), which is currently in process. This new version of the TPD is intended to foster a more harmonised and impactful regulatory framework for novel nictoine products across the EU’s member states and predictions are that it will be stricter. Page and other speakers will explore the processes and politics of the revised regulation, its expected approach to evidence and its implications for tobacco harm reduction.
The GFN is a long-running event focusing on public health aspects of novel nicotine products. This year’s conference will be from 3–5 June in Warsaw, Poland.