In the face of a major push by the tobacco companies and their allies to trick Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to integrate the industry’s “harm reduction” marketing message into FCTC guidelines, the WHO has issued a position paper on harm reduction (below). The WHO’s bottom line: “When it comes to tobacco, nicotine and related products, a [true] harm reduction agenda should never be a reason for light touch regulation or a deregulation agenda.”
WHO is quite specific about the credibility of industry claims of harm reduction for some of their products: “However, tobacco companies have a long history of dishonestly downplaying the harms caused by their products. … And this is not all in the past, as they continue to mislead consumers and authorities about the risks posed by their products. This forms part of a profit-driven strategy to grow and sustain tobacco company businesses by expanding their customer base or market share, while undermining tobacco control policies by arguing for a largely unregulated or lightly regulated commercial market. [emphasis added, citations omitted]”
WHO also emphasizes its established support for countries that prohibit e-cigarettes and other products.
An even more direct reason not to integrate e-cigarettes into the FCTC guidelines is that as actually used e-cigarettes increase, not reduce harm even for adult smokers, so are not an effective harm reduction strategy. And, of course, all the kids they addict to nicotine are worse off, too.
The paper is available on the WHO website here.
The Conference of the Parties will be held from November 17 to 22, 2025.
Stanton Glantz blog 