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LONDON, Oct. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

While global leaders and media focus on UN COP26 [ https://ukcop26.org/ ], the

climate summit starting this Sunday, 182 government delegations are preparing

for another COP meeting. Yet the ninth session of the COP [

https://fctc.who.int/who-fctc/governance/conference-of-the-parties/ninth-session-of-the-conference-of-the-parties

] (COP9) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) from 8 - 13

November has received little attention and will be conducted in secretive

closed sessions.

Fighting The Last War: The WHO and International Tobacco Control [

https://gsthr.org/resources/thr-reports/fighting-the-last-war/122/ ], the

latest report from UK health agency KAC [ https://kachange.eu/ ]'s Global State

of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) [ https://gsthr.org/ ] reveals that current

implementation of the FCTC, which aims to reduce smoking-related death and

disease, is a global public health failure. Enacted in 2005 when there were 1.1

billion smokers worldwide, today there remain 1.1 billion smokers, and eight

million smoking-related deaths each year.

Harm reduction offers new hope. Vaping devices, snus, nicotine pouches and

heated tobacco products are significantly safer than cigarettes, delivering

nicotine without burning tobacco. This helps people who cannot or do not want

to stop using nicotine to quit deadly smoking and switch.

Parties to the FCTC including the UK and New Zealand have seen marked decreases

in smoking after introducing harm reduction policies alongside domestic tobacco

control regimes. GSTHR [ https://gsthr.org/ ] estimates suggest 98 million

people worldwide already use safer nicotine products [

https://gsthr.org/reports/burning-issues-2020/chapter-2/ ]. Yet report author

Harry Shapiro argues that the fight against smoking is "now being actively

undermined by the WHO."

The WHO remains opposed to harm reduction for tobacco and international tobacco

control is increasingly focused on banning safer products. Ideological

opposition to tobacco harm reduction from influential philanthropic funders [

https://gsthr.org/reports/burning-issues-2020/chapter-5/ ] has distorted global

policymaking - when harm reduction is actually named as a core element of

tobacco control in the FCTC, and is key to the WHO's drugs and HIV/AIDS

programmes.

"At COP9, government delegations must prevent the slide into outright nicotine

prohibition," said Professor Gerry Stimson of KAC. "This would see a return to

smoking for many people and many millions more never able to quit successfully.

The age of combustion - for tobacco and for fossil fuels - has to end."

Launched at a free online event today [ http://events.gsthr.org/ ] with

international tobacco and drug policy experts and consumer advocates, the

report [ https://gsthr.org/resources/thr-reports/fighting-the-last-war/122/ ]

argues that Parties to the FCTC must seize back control of FCTC COP meetings

and demand evidence-based discussions on safer nicotine products and tobacco

harm reduction. Funding for the GSTHR project was provided by a grant from the

Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.

Infographic - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1668005/KAC_Infographic.jpg

Source: Knowledge Action Change (KAC)