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.
Featured Publications
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 May 1, 2026 TIM Alert
ENDS
Geek Bar has added a new page to their website, Geek Bar Vibe, which promotes upcoming brand appearances at various summer music festivals and a themed giveaway. The giveaway is hosted on Instagram and TikTok, and invites fans to post videos holding their Geek Bars for the chance to win festival merch and Geek Bar products as prizes.
IQOS
This month, the US FDA renewed authorization for five IQOS products to be marketed as modified risk tobacco products (MRTPs) with reduced exposure claims. This authorization applies to two devices (IQOS 2.4 and IQOS 3.0) and Marlboro HeatSticks in three flavors: Amber, Green Menthol, and Blue Menthol. This does not extend to the IQOS Iluma device, which is still under review with FDA. These products are allowed to be marketed with the following exposure modification claims: