THR Global
Community Perspectives
Independent articles and perspectives from contributors across the tobacco harm reduction community. THR Global provides this directory and links to each author's original publication.
Apply to contributeArticles remain the work of their individual authors. Inclusion in this directory does not mean THR Global endorses every view expressed.
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
18 August 2026
One Nation has proposed a 75 per cent reduction in tobacco excise, and you could almost write the responses before they arrived: public health progress is threatened, Big Tobacco will benefit, smoking could increase, we need stronger enforcement, tougher penalties and more quitting support, and above all we must protect decades of tobacco control achievement.
Alan Gorley • Policy & Regulation • Australia
Community PerspectivesPublic Health Debate
17 August 2026
Lung Foundation Australia is right to demand equity in screening and care, but equity also requires an honest conversation about tobacco harm reduction.
Alan Gorley • Public Health Debate • Australia
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
14 August 2026
A great way to learn about other people's perspectives.
Skip Murray • Consumer Perspectives • United States
Community PerspectivesPublic Health Debate
14 August 2026
Tobacco causes immense harm. That does not excuse the use of selective evidence, false binaries and policy advocacy presented as neutral fact
Alan Gorley • Public Health Debate • Australia
Community PerspectivesMedia & Communications
12 August 2026
I’ve been sitting with the news that Filter is closing, trying to understand why it feels like such a personal loss.
Alan Gorley • Media & Communications • Australia
Community PerspectivesMedia & Communications
11 August 2026
No regrets
Skip Murray • Media & Communications • United States
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
10 August 2026
There is a sentence near the end of the ABC investigation into Australia’s illicit tobacco crisis that, for me, captures the central problem with the Australian debate.
Alan Gorley • Policy & Regulation • Australia
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
9 August 2026
Subject: To the Scientists Who Never Got the Memo
Alan Gorley • Science & Evidence • Australia
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
8 August 2026
When most people read the latest investigation into the collapse of the Australian Border Force’s secret intelligence unit, they will probably focus on one individual.
Alan Gorley • Policy & Regulation • Australia
Community PerspectivesCessation & Behaviour
6 August 2026
Working together towards the common goal - everyone wins
N. E. Loucas • Cessation & Behaviour • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
6 August 2026
Project Index
Skip Murray • Policy & Regulation • United States
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
5 August 2026
Ecological momentary assessment is an impressive research method because, instead of asking participants to reconstruct their behaviour days or weeks later, researchers contact them in real time to ask what they are doing, where they are, how they are feeling and what happened immediately before they vaped.
Alan Gorley • Consumer Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesEthics & Human Rights
4 August 2026
We're failing people when we treat nicotine addiction and not the whole person
Skip Murray • Ethics & Human Rights • United States
Community PerspectivesCessation & Behaviour
3 August 2026
Every so often, a paper appears that calls for a “balanced perspective.” It is a phrase that sounds reassuring because science should be balanced, public policy should be balanced, and decisions that affect millions of lives should certainly be balanced.
Alan Gorley • Cessation & Behaviour • Australia
Community PerspectivesEthics & Human Rights
1 August 2026
Announcing the launch of a new page on the Safer Nicotine Wiki
Skip Murray • Ethics & Human Rights • United States
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
31 July 2026
Watching James Martin’s presentation alongside Cheneal Puljević’s is fascinating because they are not really arguing about whether Australia has an illicit tobacco crisis.
Alan Gorley • Policy & Regulation • Australia
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
30 July 2026
Imagine writing the history of civilisation not through kings, wars, borders, revolutions or empires, but through something much simpler: the history of safer.
Alan Gorley • Consumer Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
29 July 2026
Simon’s latest argument is revealing because, underneath all the rhetoric, he actually concedes much of the problem his critics are describing.
Alan Gorley • Consumer Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesProducts & Innovation
29 July 2026
There is a convenient story often told about tobacco harm reduction.
Alan Gorley • Products & Innovation • Australia
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
29 July 2026
Wherever my 10th grade English teacher, Mr. Loeffler is, I am sure he is smiling because someone was actually paying attention in class. ;-)
N. E. Loucas • Consumer Perspectives • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
29 July 2026
Evidence that patience, stories, and science really can change minds
Skip Murray • Consumer Perspectives • United States
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
28 July 2026
Review of 7 emblematic studies
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
26 July 2026
Review of 7 emblematic studies
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
26 July 2026
Every day we ask questions.
Alan Gorley • Consumer Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
25 July 2026
Australia’s illicit tobacco crisis has reached a remarkable point.
Alan Gorley • Policy & Regulation • Australia
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
24 July 2026
From my GFN presentation in a panel titled "Debunking the Science Used to Support Prohibition"
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
23 July 2026
The science vs the politics
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesRegional Perspectives
22 July 2026
There are moments in public policy when the conversation itself becomes more important than the conclusions.
Alan Gorley • Regional Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
19 July 2026
Lately, I have found myself thinking less about winning the battles in front of me and more about what will remain when those battles are no longer mine to fight.
Alan Gorley • Consumer Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
17 July 2026
The latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey should have been an opportunity to give Australians a clear and honest account of what has happened to smoking, vaping and nicotine use since the federal government overturned the legal vaping market and forced lawful supply into participating pharmacies.
Alan Gorley • Science & Evidence • Australia
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
16 July 2026
From my GFN presentation in a panel titled "Debunking the Science Used to Support Prohibition"
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
15 July 2026
One of political economy’s most revealing ideas is the Bootleggers and Baptists paradox.
Alan Gorley • Consumer Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
14 July 2026
Fitness studies looking for effects of vaping and smoking
Skip Murray • Science & Evidence • United States
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
12 July 2026
This is the final instalment of the series and continues directly from Part 2.
Alan Gorley • Consumer Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
11 July 2026
This Substack continues from Part 1, where I explored how institutional incentives, path dependence and organisational structures can shape public policy.
Alan Gorley • Consumer Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesEthics & Human Rights
10 July 2026
Adapted from my GFN 2026 presentation
Arielle Selya • Ethics & Human Rights • US
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
10 July 2026
Public health debates are often presented as contests between evidence and vested interests.
Alan Gorley • Consumer Perspectives • Australia
Community PerspectivesMedia & Communications
9 July 2026
July 9, 2026
Skip Murray • Media & Communications • United States
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
9 July 2026
July 8, 2026
Skip Murray • Consumer Perspectives • United States
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
8 July 2026
Honor Their Personal Agency
N. E. Loucas • Consumer Perspectives • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
4 July 2026
A Look at NHS England
Skip Murray • Science & Evidence • United States
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
3 July 2026
The US FDA CTP announcement was made June 30, 2026.
Skip Murray • Policy & Regulation • United States
Community PerspectivesPublic Health Debate
3 July 2026
My take on an exchange about Beaglehole et al.'s article showing a sudden steeper decline in New Zealand's smoking rate. Below, I expand my PubPeer comment on a published criticism to this article.
Arielle Selya • Public Health Debate • US
Community PerspectivesEthics & Human Rights
29 June 2026
Yet when it comes to nicotine and safer alternatives to smoking, that arc is bending in a strange direction.
N. E. Loucas • Ethics & Human Rights • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
25 June 2026
Where lives are at stake, it is imperative to identify common ground and pursue coordinated, evidence-based action.
N. E. Loucas • Consumer Perspectives • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
25 June 2026
My new paper shows that US adults are in the midst of switching from combustible cigarettes to e-cigarette use, with little dual use. Many other countries show similar transitions.
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesPublic Health Debate
23 June 2026
"Public health policies should encourage smokers to move away from combustible tobacco, not make safer alternatives inaccessible while cigarettes remain widely available."
N. E. Loucas • Public Health Debate • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesPublic Health Debate
23 June 2026
Why Tobacco Harm Reduction is a Policy Imperative in Asia Pacific
N. E. Loucas • Public Health Debate • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
18 June 2026
A look at Cleveland Clinic
Skip Murray • Science & Evidence • United States
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
14 June 2026
Laura Leigh Oyler (Haypp Group) and I discuss the history and current events of US regulation of nicotine and tobacco products.
Arielle Selya • Policy & Regulation • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
13 June 2026
A look at University of Iowa Health Care
Skip Murray • Science & Evidence • United States
Community PerspectivesEthics & Human Rights
7 June 2026
Recognising gender as a core risk factor is not about blaming individuals. It is about being honest that social norms, economic structures, and health systems are not neutral.
N. E. Loucas • Ethics & Human Rights • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
3 June 2026
Why do public health principles so often stop when the substance is nicotine?
Skip Murray • Science & Evidence • United States
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
1 June 2026
#OurVoices
Skip Murray • Consumer Perspectives • United States
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
31 May 2026
Correcting a flawed risk analysis
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
30 May 2026
What are we doing to our kids?
Skip Murray • Consumer Perspectives • United States
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
29 May 2026
Correcting a flawed risk analysis
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesMedia & Communications
27 May 2026
15th Annual World Vape Day - May 30, 2026
Skip Murray • Media & Communications • United States
Community PerspectivesMedia & Communications
25 May 2026
Guest post by Kurt Yeo
Skip Murray • Media & Communications • United States
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
25 May 2026
Summary of a useless research
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesRegional Perspectives
24 May 2026
A Policy Analysis | May 2026
N. E. Loucas • Regional Perspectives • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesPublic Health Debate
22 May 2026
Harm reduction is one of the most widely used yet poorly understood concepts in public life.
N. E. Loucas • Public Health Debate • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
4 May 2026
These are the trains of thought going through my head when I receive peer review invitations. Other scientists, what do you do?
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
24 April 2026
With wider acceptance that e-cigarettes are a viable harm-reduction method among people who smoke, the scientific battleground has retreated to "dual use." A recent exchange captures this well.
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
21 April 2026
Smoke-Free Reality vs Treaty Dogma: The Real Cost of The WHO FCTC Approach to Harm Reduction.
N. E. Loucas • Policy & Regulation • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesPublic Health Debate
21 April 2026
How false narratives about vaping and cancer risk are costing lives, and what we all must do about it.
N. E. Loucas • Public Health Debate • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesRegional Perspectives
12 April 2026
The real question was never whether THR sounds promising. It is whether governments can introduce it in a way that genuinely reduces harm without creating new problems.
N. E. Loucas • Regional Perspectives • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
9 April 2026
The report deals with vaping in a short review based on selective references to highlight risks
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
8 April 2026
Copied below is an email that my collaborators and I sent to journal editors expressing concern about a recent paper claiming a link between e-cigarette use and chronic kidney disease
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
6 April 2026
Part II. The case for/against Third Hand Vaping
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
31 March 2026
On Endurance, Stoicism and Learning What Not to Carry
N. E. Loucas • Consumer Perspectives • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesPublic Health Debate
31 March 2026
Why Effective THR Advocacy Starts With Meeting People Where They Are
N. E. Loucas • Public Health Debate • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
23 March 2026
Five reasons why a prescription-only model is problematic (video & text)
Arielle Selya • Policy & Regulation • US
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
18 March 2026
Why Some Former Opponents of Harm Reduction Shift Late in Their Careers
N. E. Loucas • Consumer Perspectives • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesConsumer Perspectives
17 March 2026
We are living in a moment where trust in health systems, institutions, and expertise is under pressure.
N. E. Loucas • Consumer Perspectives • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
16 March 2026
Part 2.
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
12 March 2026
Highlights, lowlights, and other notable things from the conference. Not meant to be an all-inclusive list or a representative summary; just what stood out to me personally.
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesEthics & Human Rights
10 March 2026
There is something deeply wrong when people feel they have to fight to be treated like human beings in conversations about their own health.
N. E. Loucas • Ethics & Human Rights • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
8 March 2026
Part II: Review of the literature on environmental vape aerosols.
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesEthics & Human Rights
5 March 2026
It goes beyond tobacco taxes/excise and political aspirations...way beyond.
N. E. Loucas • Ethics & Human Rights • New Zealand
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
21 February 2026
A highly-criticized meta-analysis of e-cigs &health outcomes was just updated. Not only does it still perpetuate critical flaws in the underlying studies, but it's interpreted with double-standards.
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
18 February 2026
Part I: Historical background on passive smoking.
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
14 February 2026
In my weekly review of new nicotine/tobacco research, I just saw two examples of a critical flaw that to my knowledge is a brand new error. (The two papers have a common author.)
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
26 January 2026
Efforts to correct flawed science often go nowhere, but there are a few recent successes: a couple post-publication criticisms and a retraction - though not before flawed papers had caused real damage
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesMedia & Communications
16 January 2026
I’ve decided to create a personal YouTube channel as part of a New Year’s resolution to bring THR science more widely to the public.
Arielle Selya • Media & Communications • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
7 January 2026
How I went from academic tobacco control researcher to industry consultant after changing my mind with my own analyses
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesPolicy & Regulation
28 December 2025
Observational behavioral studies cannot inform about causality, let alone make recommendations about effective policy. Yet many such logical leaps routinely get through peer review.
Arielle Selya • Policy & Regulation • US
Community PerspectivesEthics & Human Rights
20 December 2025
Lifestyle-related behaviors are important determinants of health — but excessive focus on potential risks is undermining people's autonomy to make the most basic decisions on their own.
Arielle Selya • Ethics & Human Rights • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
9 November 2025
The near-exclusive focus on extrinsic (and ignoring of intrinsic) drivers of behavior
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
3 November 2025
How it can improve research integrity, where it can go wrong, and how to do it right
Arielle Selya • Science & Evidence • US
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
19 September 2025
This is the tenth Substack post. It is the third one of a series of 3 posts dealing with environmental vape aerosols. A 4th post reviewing the literature is forecoming.
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
25 August 2025
This is the ninth Substack post. It is the second one of a series of 3 posts dealing with environmental vape aerosols.
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
4 August 2025
This is the eigth Substack post. It is the first one of a series of 3 posts dealing with environmental vape aerosols.
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
24 July 2025
A review of 40 studies
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
11 July 2025
Aldehydes, reactions, yields, comparisons with tobacco smoke & air pollution. Free radicals and carbon monoxide
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
26 April 2025
Summary
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
Community PerspectivesScience & Evidence
6 April 2025
Testing vapes in the laboratory
Roberto Sussman • Science & Evidence • Mexico
