Global analysis of regulatory definitions of tobacco and nicotine-containing products

The proliferation of nicotine-containing products challenges global tobacco control progress. National regulations often rely on product definitions to enforce restrictions or prohibitions. Incomplete legal definitions can leave certain products unregulated, undermining public health efforts. We analysed how countries define tobacco and nicotine-containing products in national laws to map current regulatory coverage.

We reviewed tobacco control-related national laws of the 189 Signatories and Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), assessing the presence of specific definitions of tobacco products, nicotine, nicotine-containing products and the subcomponents of these definitions. Up-to-date national laws published until 31 December 2024 were collected using online search engines and publicly available information, primarily from https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/, published in English, existing translations or translated into English from local languages. We employed a qualitative aggregation of the legal definitions to map the central categories and divergent approaches across countries.

In the analysis, 231 laws from 189 countries were included. Of these countries, 169 (89%) had an explicit definition of tobacco products, while 76 (40%) defined nicotine, 18 (10%) defined nicotine-containing products and 91 (48%) defined specific nicotine-containing products. Only 56 (30%) had a definition of tobacco products covering all components mentioned in the FCTC's definition, 68 (36%) named specific products within the definition, 24 (13%) included electronic nicotine delivery systems, 13 (7%) included any nicotine-containing product and 5 (3%) included electronic non-nicotine delivery systems. The most commonly defined nicotine-containing product group was electronic-cigarettes or their liquids: 61 (32%).

This study reveals heterogeneity in how countries define tobacco and nicotine-containing products. While the 2003 FCTC definition provides a foundational baseline, the rapid proliferation of nicotine-containing products may have prompted countries to expand their legal definitions in divergent ways. These discrepancies may create loopholes that could be exploited by the nicotine and tobacco industry to undermine and avoid regulations.