Latest news with #WHOFrameworkConventiononTobaccoControl
Newsroom
2 days ago
- Health
- Newsroom
Making heated tobacco products cheaper than cigarettes is no scandal
Opinion: The Government's decision to introduce a lower excise rate for heated tobacco products (HTPs) has been widely framed as 'giving tax breaks to tobacco companies'. It's a provocative line – and politically potent – but it doesn't help us have an honest, evidence-informed discussion about how to reduce smoking harm, particularly for the most disadvantaged New Zealanders, or how to deal with conflicts of interest. Let's be clear: this isn't a corporate subsidy, so long as the reduced tax is passed on with cheaper products. It's an excise adjustment applied to a class of tobacco products that heat rather than burn tobacco. (Like vaping products, HTPs are marketed as smoke-free alternatives to cigarettes, but are not the same thing.) Combustion is what makes smoking lethal. Cigarettes burn at over 800C, releasing thousands of toxic compounds. Heated tobacco products operate at much lower temperatures and don't produce smoke – just an aerosol – with far fewer harmful constituents. That distinction matters. The multinational tobacco company Philip Morris does hold a monopoly over HTPs in New Zealand. That's not ideal, but it doesn't mean the tax policy exists for Philip Morris International. The intention is to make a less harmful product more affordable than cigarettes – a principle long accepted in tobacco harm reduction, and already applied to vaping. Unfortunately, it appears Philip Morris International hasn't yet passed on the tax savings to the small number of HTP users in New Zealand – this is the real scandal. In addition, the apparent impact of PMI on government policy is tough to ignore, and contrary to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which seeks to protect government policy from tobacco industry influence. New Zealand has rightly taxed cigarettes heavily to deter use. But excise taxes are also regressive. The remaining people who smoke – fewer than 7 percent of adults – are disproportionately Māori, Pasifika, low-income, and more likely to experience mental health distress. The associate minister of health, Casey Costello, justified the excise differential by citing relative harm reduction and the growing inequity of uniform excise. Her reasoning deserves more attention than it has been given. Critics argue there's insufficient evidence that HTPs help people quit, but the UK Office for Health Improvement and Disabilities, the UK Committee on Toxicity, and the US Food and Drug Administration all acknowledge HTPs reduce exposure to toxicants compared with cigarettes. That doesn't make them harmless – but being less harmful than smoking is enough to warrant a differential tax. The example of Japan is instructive. There, HTPs make up over 30 percent of tobacco sales. Though vaping is banned, cigarette consumption has plummeted by 40 percent in some markets. Surveys suggest many smokers switched completely to HTPs. Youth uptake has been minimal. No policy is perfect, but that's a shift in the right direction. What's really at stake here? Not a tax break for big tobacco – but increasing the options for people who smoke and want to quit, and whether we believe in a response to nicotine products based on their comparative risks to human health as a foundation for public health policy. A more productive debate would ask: • Are they less harmful than cigarettes, and do they help smokers quit? • Are tax savings being passed on to consumers? • Are HTPs being promoted responsibly? • Will there be an independent evaluation of their impact on smoking rates? In a country that leads the world with its Smokefree 2025 goal, we should be asking how to accelerate the decline in smoking, not defending a one-size-fits-all excise regime that's increasingly disconnected from the realities of risk, behaviour, and equity. If HTPs can help some people switch, pricing them appropriately is not a scandal. It's a good policy – provided it's transparent, monitored, and grounded in evidence, and the tax savings are passed on to consumers.
Bangkok Post
2 days ago
- Health
- Bangkok Post
WHO supports Thailand's e-cigarette crackdown
The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed support for Thailand's continued ban on the import and sale of e-cigarettes, while the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) has pledged a 'denormalisation effort' to reduce the prevalence of vaping among young people. Dr Olivia Nieveras, a senior public health specialist with WHO Thailand, said Thailand's policy to ban e-cigarettes was in line with empirical evidence about the harm of vaping products, as well as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which Thailand joined in 2003. She urged all parties involved to follow Article 5.3 of the FCTC, which focuses on policies to protect society from the commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry. The WHO's theme for World No Tobacco Day on May 31 this year was 'Unmasking the Appeal: Exposing Industry Tactics on Tobacco and Nicotine Products'. The campaign focuses on 'revealing the tactics that the tobacco and nicotine industries use to make their harmful products seem attractive', according to the organisation. Dr Nieveras made the comments at a briefing held by ThaiHealth and the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre (TRC) on Tuesday during the 23rd National Health and Cigarette Control Forum in Bangkok. Dr Prakit Vathesatogkit, president of the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation, said the business and political influence of corporations that sell vapes has made it more challenging for countries to follow Article 5.3. As a result, the WHO has instructed these countries to ban representatives of cigarette companies from joining the E-Cigarette Control Policy Board or any similar body. Dr Prakit said that over the past 32 years, his foundation and anti-tobacco networks have helped to reduce smoking in Thailand by 49%. However, there are still 9.8 million smokers, with many young people still taking up the habit. Dr Pongthep Wongwatcharapaiboon, a manager at ThaiHealth, said e-cigarette producers have adjusted their promotional campaigns, making e-cigarettes seem like a safer and more acceptable alternative to tobacco products, to appeal more to would-be new and younger smokers. A survey conducted by ThaiHealth, the Office of the Basic Education Commission and the Equitable Education Fund (EEF), among 124,606 students in 1,699 elementary and secondary schools nationwide, found that 25% had tried e-cigarettes, 22% had friends who used vapes and 20% lived in a community where vaping is prevalent. This shows that exposure to e-cigarettes often relates to a person's social environment, Dr Pongthep said, adding that ThaiHealth has come up with an e-cigarette 'denormalisation' initiative. The campaign aims to provide factual information regarding e-cigarette usage, mainly targeting young people. 'The campaign aims to shift the mindset of 'cannot' smoke to 'don't want to' smoke,' said Dr Pongthep.
Scoop
2 days ago
- Health
- Scoop
Upholding Integrity: Call For Consistent Conflict Of Interest Standards In Public Health
As public health systems strive to address the global burden of smoking-related harm, calls are intensifying for more balanced and consistent application of conflict of interest standards in policymaking. Central to this discussion is Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), designed to insulate public health policy from tobacco industry influence. While its intent remains vital, growing concerns point to its uneven enforcement—particularly where consumer advocates are labeled unfairly, while other powerful stakeholders, including pharmaceutical and philanthropic interests, remain largely exempt from equivalent scrutiny. Many public health researchers and agencies receive funding from industries with vested interests in cessation products, raising questions about selective application of influence standards. Critics argue that this imbalance risks undermining public trust and marginalising grassroots voices essential to developing practical harm reduction solutions. 'The principle of integrity must be universally applied,' Clarisse Virgino, CAPHRA representative to the Philippines, argues. 'Transparency and accountability are essential—both in protecting public health and ensuring all credible voices are heard.' There is a growing consensus that consumer advocates, many with lived experience and deep commitment to harm reduction, deserve a seat at the table. Their contributions are seen as vital to ensuring public health policies remain grounded in science, not silenced by politics or commercial competition.
Daily Express
22-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Express
12th Global Forum on Nicotine experts fault WHO inaction
Published on: Tuesday, July 22, 2025 Published on: Tue, Jul 22, 2025 By: David Thien Text Size: WARSAW: The World Health Organization (WHO) was taken to task for its refusal to recognise scientific outcomes that prove alternative nicotine products help some 1.3 billion smokers in the world quit the habit, or transition to a less harmful to their health options. This view was shared by many expert participants at the 12th Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN 2025) that was held in Poland at the Warsaw Presidential Hotel from June 19 to 21, 2025. They were scientists and doctors among other professionals. It was reported that smoking causes some 8 million deaths around the world. It is well established that nicotine does not cause smoking-related diseases, which result instead from the inhalation of toxicants in tobacco smoke. High quality independent evidence supporting the role of safer nicotine products in smoking cessation is growing. Vapes, pouches, pasteurised snus and heated tobacco products (HTPs) all deliver nicotine without combustion, leading to substantially reduced health risks in comparison to continued smoking. There was consensus that fear-driven narratives about safer nicotine products means prolonged misery and death for smokers as pervasive misconceptions about safer nicotine products and their role in smoking cessation could see tobacco harm reduction fail to fulfil its huge potential. The Global Forum on Nicotine is organised by Global Forum on Nicotine Limited, an events company committed to providing a platform for global public health debate, knowledge exchange and networking, underpinned by the principles of inclusiveness and multi-sectoral engagement. It does not receive sponsorship from manufacturers, distributors or retailers of nicotine products including pharmaceutical, vaping and tobacco companies. Conference-supporting organisations endorse the event, but have no financial or administrative involvement in organisation of the event. According to Riccardo Polosa, professor of medicine at the University of Catania in Italy, the World Health Organization (WHO) is actively misleading the public about the relative risk of nicotine products compared to cigarettes on purpose. 'They select their references and distort the evidence. There is one single objective, in my opinion, which is to create their own science that supports the abstinence-only narrative,' he says. 'But this has terrible consequences for millions of smokers who would otherwise switch to much less harmful products. In the clinical world, this would be called negligence,' he said, in a special session marked 20 years of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), in which leading voices examined the treaty's impact. 'The FCTC has succeeded politically and legally,' said Jeannie Cameron, a policy consultant. 'But if we measure success by reductions in smoking and tobacco-related deaths, it has failed.' 'We still have over a billion smokers worldwide. The FCTC was meant to reduce cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disease,' said Derek Yach, a former WHO director. 'Tobacco harm reduction is the obvious way to stop this crisis in its tracks.' Global experts are tackling a barrier that continues to undermine efforts to reduce the annual 8 million premature deaths related to smoking: misinformation and miscommunication about safer nicotine products and tobacco harm reduction (THR). The GFN 2025 is challenging perceptions as effective communication for tobacco harm reduction conference is a call to action for change. While science increasingly supports safer nicotine products like vapes, snus, pouches and heated tobacco as tools to help smokers switch away from combustibles, fear-driven narratives continue to dominate media and policy. In a keynote lecture Jacob Grier, a journalist covering tobacco policy who has written for Slate and The Atlantic, talked about the disconnect between the evidence for tobacco harm reduction – utility of products like vapes and snus as safer alternatives to continued smoking – and the fact that hostile media narratives are shaping public opinion and health policies. How can impactful, evidence-based messaging be built that respects both reduced-risk products and consumer autonomy? 'Obviously we need to emphasize credible research. The bad news is that having the facts on our side is clearly not enough,' Grier said. 'Journalists seek novelty, so if something isn't new, it isn't news. Millions of people dying from smoking isn't a story, but a few dozen people dying from adulterated [THC or cannabis] vapes generates months of media coverage.' The Global Forum on Nicotine is the only global event that welcomes all stakeholders involved with new and safer nicotine products, including: consumers and consumer advocates; public health experts; policy analysts, parliamentarians and government officials; academics and researchers; product manufacturers and distributors; and media representatives. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express's Telegram channel. Daily Express Malaysia
The Star
20-07-2025
- Health
- The Star
Inspiring change
My family is the motivation behind my advocacy work. My dad suffered a stroke as a result of smoking, and now he can't move his leg and struggles to speak. With better public policy, others will not have to suffer like our family. My parents are very supportive of me because they are victims of smoking. My dad has decided to quit not just because of the illness, but also because he has heard me speak to international audiences and it made him cry. But what really made me want to deep dive into tobacco control happened nine years ago. My friends and I were arrested for organising a student protest at a tobacco event that was promoting these harmful products to youth. When we got out of jail, there were many activists like us waiting outside and they said, 'We will back you up. If you are not allowed home, we too will not go home.' That crucial moment led me here. Manik Marganamahendra Executive director Indonesian Youth Council for Tactical Changes (IYCTC), Jakarta, Indonesia Manik has played a pivotal role in campaigns such as #SaveOurSurroundings (SOS), which raises awareness about the wide-ranging impact of tobacco, including its economic, human rights, and environmental consequences. In just one year, the SOS Movement has successfully engaged with five regional government offices, five national ministries, and more than 10 local and national legislative bodies in support of stronger tobacco control policies. For his decade-long contributions in tobacco control advocacy, Manik was recently named a Global Young Ambassador of the Year by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids – a recognition of his leadership on the international stage. I started on this path eight years ago. My father was a chain smoker for decades. Now, he is facing serious health complications and my mother, who never puffed on a single cigarette, had to battle breast cancer after years of exposure to second-hand smoke. As a basketball coach, I've watched with growing concern as e-cigarettes make their way into the hands of my young charges. Disguised in sleek packaging and marketed as cool, these vapes are falsely said to be harmless. What's worse, some of them believe it. To see kids as young as 13 having access to these devices is frustrating and alarming. I refuse to watch another generation be dragged into a cycle of addiction, illness and environmental harm caused by tobacco. Gene Navarra Gesite Jr. Project coordinator Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC), Philippines Gesite is an international affairs professional with over eight years of experience in policy analysis, project development and management, research, and international relations. At GGTC, he oversees project implementation and supports campaign and advocacy efforts to promote the universal adoption and enforcement of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Gesite also serves as the coordinator of the Global Youth Voices (GYV), a movement that unites global, regional and local youth organisations in over 130 countries, to make the industry pay for the harms caused by tobacco to the planet and its people. His work focuses on coalition-building, strategic partnerships, and global campaigns that empower youth advocacy, capacity-building, and awareness-raising initiatives. Like many young people, I got involved in fighting tobacco because it was harming those I cared about. It started when the same friends I had swum lap after lap with in the pool began vaping flavoured e-cigarettes between practices. I remember watching them disappear into bathrooms that had become vape lounges. Out of concern, I confided in my seventh-grade health teacher, who soon taught me about the dangers of these devices. Our conversation turned my protective instinct into purpose. I set out on a mission to create change through collective learning and activism, and helped build the first tobacco prevention programmes at my middle and high schools. Agamroop Kaur Youth ambassador Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Appointed by former California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon to the Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee, the student of cognitive science and global health at University of California, Los Angeles, began her tobacco control advocacy at age 12, creating prevention programmes at her school. The 2022 Barrie Fiske National Youth Advocate of the Year started her tobacco control advocacy so that her younger siblings, cousins and the students who come after her can learn and grow in a safe environment. She produced the award-winning documentary 'Big Tobacco, Bigger Epidemic', which examines corporate influence and regulatory failures behind the US youth e-cigarette crisis, and has served on the board of directors of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
