PR96554

WARSAW, Poland, June 17, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

    A new study [ https://gfn.events/new-research ] launched at the ninth

annual Global Forum on Nicotine (#GFN22) [ https://gfn.events/ ] in Warsaw

shows implementation of the WHO's tobacco control measures known as MPOWER has

no clear association with low-levels of tobacco-related mortality in Europe.

    Instead, the independent research [ https://gfn.events/new-research ],

conducted by distinguished tobacco dependence researcher Dr Lars M. Ramström [

http://www.tobaccostudies.com/ ], shows that switching from smoking to

Swedish-style snus, a safer nicotine product, is a more effective strategy to

reduce the harms caused by tobacco.

    Presented to hundreds of delegates, as well as over 50 international

experts on tobacco and nicotine science [ https://gfn.events/programme ] who

are speaking at #GFN22, the new findings provide further evidence that the WHO

must embrace tobacco harm reduction as part of its global tobacco control

response by supporting the use of safer nicotine products to quit smoking.

    In 2007, the WHO launched MPOWER [ https://www.who.int/initiatives/mpower

], a process and monitoring mechanism to implement the Framework Convention on

Tobacco Control [ https://fctc.who.int/publications/i/item/9241591013  ]

(FCTC), an international treaty developed in response to the global nature of

the public health crisis caused by tobacco use and smoking. Comprising six

measures, it aims to reduce the demand for tobacco. But, despite 15 years of

MPOWER, there are still 1.1bn smokers worldwide, a total unchanged since 2000,

and eight million annual tobacco-related deaths.

    To assess MPOWER's effectiveness, Dr Ramström compared the extent of

implementation of these tobacco control measures with tobacco-related death

rates across Europe by using figures provided by the Tobacco Control Scale [

https://www.tobaccocontrolscale.org/ ], a tool that grades every European

country's level of MPOWER application, and data on tobacco-related mortality

from The Global Burden of Disease [ https://www.healthdata.org/gbd/2019 ].

    After analysing his results, Dr Ramström found no correlation between

tobacco-related mortality and a country's level of implementation of MPOWER

measures for Europe's women, and a very weak correlation for the continent's

men.

    Crucially, though, the two countries with the lowest tobacco-related

mortality for men were Sweden and Norway. In both nations a large proportion of

male smokers have switched from cigarettes to Swedish-style snus, a product

that is freely available in both, but banned from sale in the EU except Sweden.

Despite Sweden's TCS score being below average, it has achieved a lower rate of

tobacco-related mortality than all the countries that have higher levels of

MPOWER implementation except Norway, providing further evidence in support of

tobacco harm reduction.

    Online participation at #GFN22 is free to registered participants [

https://gfn.events/register-now ], including simultaneous translation from

English to Spanish [ https://gfn.events/languages ].

    Source: Global Forum on Nicotine