TY - JOUR T1 - Finding ‘common ground’ on shifting sands: observations on the conflicts over product regulation JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 119 LP - 120 DO - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056529 VL - 30 IS - 2 AU - Ruth E Malone Y1 - 2021/03/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/30/2/119.abstract N2 - Recently I have been sent several papers taking up the challenge of trying to resolve the current clashes within public health about the proliferating range of newer and novel nicotine and tobacco products (NNNTPs). The conflicts are real and can be hostile, provoking distress among long-time tobacco control researchers, advocates and observers and exacerbating already-existing philosophical schisms within the tobacco control movement. Hence, there is call for finding common ground, settling on an approach and ceasing the attacks on public health colleagues. Whether this is now (or has ever been) possible is somewhat doubtful, particularly on a global level, and far beyond the scope of an editorial.I offer just a few observations about the situation in which we find ourselves now as we fight on into the second decade of the 21st century to end the tobacco epidemic: how the conflicts illustrate existing tensions in public health discourse, common assumptions that may limit the possibilities for partial resolution, and some speculation as to why these conflicts are so intense at this historical moment. I am appreciative of all the colleagues with whom I have shared these discussions to date and of all those attempting to wrestle productively and authentically with these challenges. And I am profoundly unappreciative of the tobacco industry’s efforts to wedge itself into the conversation and exploit the existing disagreements for its benefit.Public health has long been subject to tensions around how to balance coercive actions by governments to protect collective well-being against the importance of individual autonomy, particularly for adults. In the case of NNNTPs, the introduction of multiple new products with unknown risk profiles, some of which were clearly being marketed to youth, created concerns that the products could prove to be a ‘gateway’ to smoking and thus undo progress made on tobacco … ER -