From awareness to action: building monitoring capacity for tobacco and nicotine industry interference-experience from the JA PreventNCD project.

Industry interference remains a major barrier to effective tobacco control. WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Article 5.3 obliges Parties to protect public health policies from industry influence, yet systematic monitoring of interference is often lacking. The emergence of new nicotine products and actors further complicate implementation and monitoring. Within Joint Action PreventNCD, we assessed monitoring and information exchange practices related to tobacco and nicotine industry interference in five European countries (Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, and Slovenia). Partner organizations (n = 5) completed an online questionnaire (July-September 2024) and the responses were descriptively analysed. To supplement the questionnaire data, we continued and expanded the search for recent interference examples until January 2025, covering examples from 2019 to 2024 through a review of publicly available sources; these were categorized by known interference tactics. Although all partners acknowledged the importance of monitoring, most countries lacked protocols, designated entities, or registries for industry interference. While some disclosure measures existed, such as policies requiring disclosure of meetings with industry and potential conflicts of interest, comprehensive safeguards were rare. Interference examples underscored the need for stronger monitoring, as known interference tactics-lobbying, harm-reduction narratives, corporate social responsibility campaigns, and use of front groups-were consistently employed, particularly around regulatory blind spots and new nicotine products. Systematic monitoring of tobacco and nicotine industry interference is essential to safeguard public health policies under WHO FCTC Article 5.3. Building national capacity, fostering collaboration between governments and civil society, and using international benchmarking tools are important steps toward this goal.