The Examination

This story is published in partnership with STAT. Four years into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s review of Zyn nicotine pouches, and not long before the agency approved them for sale, an FDA toxicologist ran some informal tests in her kitchen that led her to question whether the agency truly understood the addictive product it was about to greenlight.

In January 2025, a 14-year-old Bulgarian boy fell from a seventh-floor window after suffering a bad reaction to a vape that contained a synthetic drug similar to marijuana. His death sparked a national outcry and within weeks, the country’s parliament unanimously approved the first draft of a law banning all types of e-cigarettes. Enter the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Bulgarian affiliate.

The oil industry’s practice of flaring gas from production facilities, which spews toxic emissions into nearby communities and contributes to climate change, has gotten worse, according to anew World Bank report. Looming over oil fields like giant torches, flares burn off the gas that is pulled to the surface along with oil. Despite longstanding, industry-backed efforts to reduce flaring, the World Bank found that the volume of gas flared worldwide went up last year for the third year in a row.

Palau, a small archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, has asked the United Nations to include nicotine among the drugs covered by a 1971 treaty that governs how countries treat psychotropic drugs such as LSD, psychedelic mushrooms and other controlled substances. The request triggers a review of nicotine by a World Health Organization scientific committee, the first for the drug since the 1990s.

When Lunchables launched in 1989, it revolutionized kids’ meals. The yellow boxes of crackers, cheese and deli meat offered working moms an easy way to pack lunches and gave children a tangible DIY experience. Sales in the first year alone hit $200 million.

Indonesia has become the latest nation to require food packaging labels that warn consumers when products contain high levels of sugar, sodium or saturated fat. It joins a growing list of nations implementing a World Health Organization-backed strategy to help people make healthy food choices and combat diet-related chronic diseases.

The tobacco industry has turned to nicotine pouches to help it build a business beyond cigarettes. They’ve soared in popularity in recent years, with U.S. sales reaching an estimated $6.2 billion in 2025, more than doubling since 2023, according to the CDC Foundation. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized two products, Philip Morris International’s ZYN and Altria’s on! PLUS, saying they provide smokers with a less harmful option than cigarettes.

The European Parliament has called on the EU Commission to “urgently investigate” undisclosed meetings between its trade staff and the tobacco industry, following an investigation by The Examination and Politico and reports by an anti-tobacco nonprofit and the European Union’s watchdog. Lawmakers acted through Parliament’s annual “discharge” procedure, through which it reviews how the Commission, the executive arm of the EU, has spent its budget.

The Examination published our investigation into how China National Tobacco Corp. has undermined efforts to cut down on smoking a couple of years ago, but something has been gnawing at us ever since. Given how large China is, how many people there smoke, and China Tobacco’s near-total dominance of the cigarette market, is it possible that this is the world’s deadliest company? Spurred by a collaboration with the YouTube channel fern, we decided to see if we could figure it out. Here’s what we did.

There’s what we fear may kill us, and what most likely will. Falling bombs, mass shootings, natural disasters and other means of sudden, violent death dominate headlines. But they’re far from the leading causes of death worldwide. Most global deaths are now caused by noncommunicable diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes. In many cases, these diseases are caused by industrial pollution or well-known consumer goods.