This GFN Voices 2025 episode brings together advocates, scientists and campaigners from around the world to share why the Global Forum on Nicotine matters, how tobacco harm reduction is being misunderstood, and why honest communication, access to safer products and open debate are essential for helping people move away from smoking.
Transcription:
00:09 - 00:11
[Brent Stafford]
You won the Michael Russell Award, right?
00:11 - 00:12
[Fiona Patten]
Yes, I did.
00:12 - 00:13
[Brent Stafford]
What did that mean to you?
00:14 - 00:35
[Fiona Patten]
It really... I almost felt embarrassed because I thought, you know, Australia, we've done such a bad job. How can we be winning an award? But, you know, honestly and personally, it really has encouraged me to actually fight harder. And I think it's... Yeah, I found it really has given me encouragement to do more.
00:35 - 00:46
[Brent Stafford]
So let me ask you, the strapline for this year is challenging perceptions, right? So effective communication for THR. How do you effectively communicate THR?
00:46 - 01:29
[Fiona Patten]
Look, it is so difficult when you look at the misinformation that government agencies are providing. Government agencies that should know better, that understand harm reduction, that understand harm reduction in every other field and in every other practice. So why we can't get sensible messaging around tobacco harm reduction, I don't know. I've been turning it over these last three days at the conference. What is the angle? How do we give these idiots an elegant escape route to move into a more practical harm reduction approach? And I still don't know the answer.
01:29 - 02:30
[Alexandro Lucian]
What do you think of GFN this year? Oh, GenFian is my fourth or fifth time coming here, so it's, I think, the biggest and most important event about scientific THR research and especially nicotine. So from Brazil, we need a lot of information about the topic because of all the misinformation and disinformation. So being here and talking to all the experts and getting in personal contact with them, it's absolutely amazing. And also with all the activists and organizations of THR locally in several countries, I think I heard, I don't recall who said that, but we renew our energies for the rest of the year because it's a very difficult job to fight for THR in every country, in Brazil especially. For me personally, it's an event about information, about new and updated science, but also to get together with specialists, experts and activists to get more energy for the year to come.
02:30 - 03:24
[Maria Papaioannoy-Duic]
I felt very connected to GFN this year. I did participate a lot. I also find this GFN like other ones that I've been to, the whole one. It's this place of connection. It's about making relationships. It's about building upon those relationships. And I usually say this to kids that never want to go to university. I'm like, you're never gonna find a place where you're allowed to have ideas and explore them and people are gonna listen. That's what GFN is. You're allowed to have ideas. You're allowed to have a differentiating, a different opinion, while at the same time, people are giving you that space and you're able to have that debate. The one thing that would make GFN better is if the other side showed up to engage with us, to be open. And the doors are always open for everybody here, for all stakeholders.
03:25 - 03:33
[Brent Stafford]
The strap line for this year is challenging perceptions, right? So how do you create effective THR communication?
03:33 - 04:50
[Maria Papaioannoy-Duic]
Being honest. Being honest and consistent. and making space and sharing spaces for all those stories. I think right now, when you're looking at people trying to regulate, we have been so consistently afraid of losing flavors that we have lost sight on what exactly THR is. In Canada specifically, we've given up nicotine strengths, and we've given up access, and we've given up promotion, which I, I mean, anyone that knows me in Canada, I've hated all that. But now we're looking at giving up disposables. No. Like, you know what? We need to keep the space open. We need to continue having those conversations. And about bringing everybody together. It's okay if we don't agree on what we need to keep us smoke-free. What we need to understand is it all needs to be available there. And that is what true THR is. It's understanding. It's knowledge. It's choices and no one has that right to speak up. No organization, no trade organization, no consumer advocacy group or no business has the right to tell someone else what THR is and how it should be regulated. It needs to be fairly equally accessible for everybody.
04:51 - 04:53
[Brent Stafford]
What do you think of GFN this year?
04:53 - 05:08
[Autumn Bernal]
This is my first year at GFN, and I think it's a fantastic event. I'm a scientist, a toxicologist, so it's given me the opportunity to really interact with clinicians, people in global health policy, people in tobacco harm reduction policy, which at other events I don't get the opportunity.