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.

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 Jan 17, 2025 TIM Alert

CIGARETTES

22nd Century Group, the makers of VLN low nicotine cigarettes, has a new license and manufacturing agreement with Smoker Friendly, which operates as a convenience store and also has their own line of tobacco products. The agreement includes 11 existing Smoker Friendly (SF) brands, and 22nd Century will also make eight styles of new “all natural” Smoker Friendly cigarettes, called SF Black Label. 22nd Century announced they may also integrate Smoker Friendly’s filtered cigar business into their line of reduced nicotine products.

CIGARS

Game has recently promoted a new blend on their website. The upcoming cigar called “Summer Blend” is described as having a bright and tropical taste, and the pack’s design has a brightly filtered backdrop of the Los Angeles skyline to match.