Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40728114›Full record

ArticleHealth promotion international2025

Colonial harm in new packaging: Indigenous critiques of the tobacco industry's 'harm reduction' rhetoric.

Raglan Maddox, Christina Heris, Andrew Waa, Lani Teddy, Penney Upton, Patricia Nez Henderson, Chase Kornacki, Joseph Rodriguez, Juliet Lee, El-Shadan Tautolo and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Health promotion international, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Raglan MaddoxBagumani (Modewa) Clan, Yardhura Walani, National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-2770-0686
Christina HerisYardhura Walani, National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Andrew WaaNgāti Hine/Ngāpuhi, Eru Pōmare Māori Health Research Centre, University of Otago, ASPIRE Aotearoa, Wellington, 23a Mein Street, Newtown 6021, Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Lani TeddyNgāti Ranginui/ Ngāi Te Rangi, Eru Pōmare Māori Health Research Centre, ASPIRE Aotearoa, University of Otago, Wellington, 23a Mein Street, Newtown 6021, Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Penney UptonHealth Research Institute, University of Canberra,11 Kirinari Street, Bruce, Canberra, ACT 2617, Australia.
Patricia Nez HendersonNavajo Nation (Diné), Black Hills Center for American Indian Health, PO Box 2064, Rapid City, SD 57709, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-8087-9929
Chase KornackiNavajo Nation, Southern California American Indian Health Center, CA, United States.
Joseph RodriguezLuiseño, Haliwa Saponi, Southern California American Indian Health Center, CA, United States.ORCID 0009-0007-2823-6989
Juliet LeePrevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation-California, 2030 Addison St # 410, Berkeley, CA 94704, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-2330-3736
El-Shadan TautoloSamoa/Ngāti Tapuniu, AUT Pacific Health Research Centre, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Sydney A MartinezCherokee Nation Citizen, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Hudson College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 801 NE 13th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, United States.
Shane Kawenata BradbrookNgāi Tāmanuhiri, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Kahungunu, Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Michelle KennedyWiradjuri, School of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-9691-068X

Funding

UC Office of the President's Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) T32CF5371
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Over the last 75 years, we have learned that commercial tobacco use causes widespread disease and death. However, the commercial Tobacco and Nicotine Industry continues to promote, market, and sell tobacco and nicotine products to protect and expand profit. This reflects their legal obligation to act in shareholders' best interests. While the Tobacco and Nicotine Industry heavily promotes alternative products such as electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches, for now, these represent a relatively small share of profits compared with combustible cigarette sales. The continued reliance on and expansion of these markets generates addiction, dependence, and a range of harms. These actions represent a modern manifestation of colonization-reproducing control and exploitation that affects people at all levels, particularly Indigenous peoples, whose lands, knowledges, and well-being have long been commodified and targeted. The Tobacco and Nicotine Industry and their collaborators employ misleading strategies, including co-opting terms like 'harm reduction' and making vague promises about a 'smoke-free' or 'noncombustible' future. These tactics distract from the continued promotion and sale of harmful products under the guise of public health and harm reduction. This narrative reframes structural and commercial determinants of health as matters of individual choice and enables the continued production of Tobacco and Nicotine Industry-driven harms. Everyone has the right to health, and it is crucial to have effective tobacco control and resistance programs and policies. Governments have a duty to protect people's health by preventing the creation of new generations addicted to people-harming products. Given the ongoing and disproportionate impact of tobacco and nicotine-related disease and death-particularly for Indigenous peoples-there is an urgent need for structural change to eradicate these harms and dismantle colonial and commercial systems that sustain them.

Indexed as

Harm ReductionProduct PackagingTobacco IndustryTobacco ProductsElectronic Nicotine Delivery SystemsHumansPublic Healthnicotinepublic policysmokingsmoking preventiontobacco industry

Identifiers

PMID40728114
PMCPMC12305302

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.