Center for Rapid Surveillance of Tobacco (CRST) will perform surveillance of tobacco product marketing, the tobacco product marketplace, and tobacco use behaviors, transforming tobacco surveillance to be rapid, comprehensive, and coordinated, with salient findings fed immediately into traditional data collection systems. By identifying and evaluating signals in a timely fashion, the CRST will generate critical actionable information about changes in tobacco products which can inform FDA’s regulation of tobacco products leading to a substantial public health impact.
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Tobacco Industry Monitoring (TIM) Alert
Tobacco Industry Marketing (TIM) Alerts provide weekly newsletters to subscribers to keep up to date with tobacco industry marketing and emerging tobacco products.
Excerpt from the Aug 21, 2026 TIM Alert
CIGARS
Swisher Sweets has recently promoted a new cigar flavor in retailer magazines. "Georgia Peach" is a new addition to their Leaf line, and it is a limited-edition cigar that comes in packs of 3. The packaging emphasizes that it’s made with “100% hand-selected premium American broadleaf.”
MODERN ORAL NICOTINE PRODUCTS
Fre has released Strawberry Mango Ice pouches under Fre Flavor Labs (a “rotating series of limited-edition flavors” created with consumer input, mentioned in a previous alert). The Strawberry Mango Ice pouches are available in 6mg and 12mg strengths. The company is offering a free can of Blackberry Lemon Ice (mentioned in a previous alert) or Strawberry Mango Ice pouches when consumers spend $75 or more until August 31. Fre appears to have been selected for FDA ’s pilot program to streamline review of PMTAs for nicotine pouches. Although the pilot program was announced in September 2025, there are no PMTAs for Fre yet.