At the 9th World Conference on Tobacco Harm Reduction: “Novel Products, Research & Policy,” Brad Rodu, professor emeritus at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in the U.S., participated.
The conference was organized online by SCOHRE (International Association of Independent Experts on Smoking Control & Harm Reduction) from September 28 to 30, 2026.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Professor Rodu participated in the panel titled “Navigating Public Health Priorities: Youth Protection and Effective Regulation,” where he spoke about the challenges posed by new nicotine delivery products, the protection of minors, and the need for public health policies to be based on scientific evidence; he subsequently gave an interview to NEWS 24/7.
He has devoted more than three decades to research on tobacco harm reduction (tobacco harm reduction), focusing on the use of safer alternative products by smokers who are unable or unwilling to completely quit nicotine.
From 2005 to 2025, he held a research chair in tobacco harm reduction at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville.
In 2022, he was honored with the Michael Russell Award for his significant contribution to the scientific study of safer nicotine products and the harm reduction approach.
Mr. Rodu, the title of your talk was “Navigating Public Health Priorities: Youth Protection and Effective Regulation.” What does effective regulation look like in practice, and where do you think current policies succeed or fail?
Effective regulation of tobacco products in practice must be based on scientifically proven differences in risk between products that involve tobacco combustion and non-combustible products, such as those used in Scandinavia and the U.S.
This means that stricter regulations are needed for combustion products and less restrictive regulations for smoke-free tobacco or nicotine products, which are significantly less harmful.
At the same time, consumers should have access to comprehensive information about the different levels of risk, so that adults can make informed decisions about whether to use nicotine products and which products meet their needs and preferences. Proper regulation, by its very nature, does not involve a ban.
In your presentation, you referred to data from the National Survey on Tobacco Use Among Youth in the U.S., which showed a significant increase in vaping through 2019. From 2020 onward, however, the data show a clear decline, with overall tobacco and nicotine use falling from approximately 27%–28% to 5.7% in 2025. How do you assess the factors that contributed to this decline?
The data I presented pertained to high school students in the U.S., from 9th through 12th grade—primarily ages 14 to 18. The most striking finding was the significant reduction in smoking following an increase in e-cigarette use among students. This contradicts the claim made by some critics of the harm reduction approach, who argue that vaping would lead to an increase in smoking.
As you mentioned, e-cigarette use also declined after peaking in 2019. There are several factors that explain this trend between 2014 and 2024—namely, the sharp increase followed by an equally sharp decline.
The Tobacco 21 law in the U.S., which raised the age limit for purchasing tobacco products from 18 to 21, appears to have contributed to this change. Many high school students were obtaining e-cigarettes through friends or relatives aged 18–19, who were legally permitted to purchase the products. Raising the age limit curtailed this source of access.
At the same time, teenagers know that vaping is much less harmful than smoking and that it is harder for parents and teachers to detect. Finally, the sharp rise and equally sharp decline suggest that for many young people, e-cigarette use may have served as a fad, as is the case with other high-risk behaviors during adolescence.
You also presented data from the CDC’s 2025 Youth Health Behavior Survey regarding various high-risk behaviors, such as e-cigarette use, failure to wear a seatbelt, failure to use a condom, and the use of alcohol and cannabis. How can governments and public authorities effectively protect younger generations from these challenges without relying on scientific data to inform prevention policies?
A minor correction: the behaviors I presented were drawn from the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. I did not present a trend over time, but rather behaviors that have remained stable for many years.
Protecting adolescents from high-risk behaviors is an ongoing challenge. This particular age group has always been more prone to taking risks. The responsibility for protecting young people does not begin with governments and public health authorities. It begins with parents, teachers, older siblings, friends, and society as a whole. We must demand that tobacco manufacturers and retailers comply with the law, and penalties must be imposed on those who do not.
However, long-standing laws in the U.S. regarding alcohol, as well as complete bans on cannabis, have never fully succeeded in preventing adolescents from accessing these substances. Therefore, we should not assume that laws regarding tobacco and nicotine products will be any more effective.
The goal of my presentation was to outline a range of high-risk behaviors and to show that the harms associated with nicotine vaping are significantly lower than those of many otherbehaviors included on the list.
Looking ahead, what do you consider to be the greatest challenge for global tobacco control: preventing nicotine use among young people, helping adult smokers quit, or regulating new products?
In my opinion, the greatest challenge for tobacco control is the very way in which the field of tobacco control has evolved. Over the past two or three decades, the focus has shifted from smoking itself to all consumer products containing nicotine.
This has led some tobacco control agencies to take a negative stance toward all forms of tobacco and nicotine, even though nicotine, when consumed through a pure, smoke-free delivery system, is no more dangerous than caffeine.
As long as funding and influence remain in the hands of a tobacco control movement that seeks to ban nicotine and tobacco products, smokers around the world will continue to receive incomplete information, continue to smoke, and die prematurely.
