Experts tell Brazil: Regulate nicotine by risk to save smokers’ lives

International health experts have urged Brazil’s lawmakers to reduce smoking and save lives by acknowledging the potential of safer nicotine alternatives.

In a submission to Brazil’s health regulator ANVISA, Smoke Free Sweden (SFS) has called for a risk-proportionate regulatory framework that distinguishes combustible cigarettes from significantly lower-risk smoke-free nicotine products such as nicotine pouches, vapes and heated tobacco products.

The submission argues that while nicotine products should be regulated responsibly, policy should focus on the real source of smoking-related disease: the toxic chemicals created when tobacco is burned.

It urges ANVISA to regulate products according to their relative risks, protect young people through strict age restrictions and marketing controls and ensure adult smokers retain access to regulated smoke-free alternatives that can help them quit cigarettes.

The recommendations are reinforced by Smoke Free Sweden’s recent Tale of Two Nations report comparing Brazil with New Zealand. While Brazil’s smoking rate has stalled at around 11.6%, New Zealand has reduced smoking to just 6.8% after combining traditional tobacco control measures with support for regulated smoke-free alternatives. The report argues that the two countries’ diverging results reflect contrasting regulatory approaches to nicotine products.

Smoke Free Sweden leader Dr Delon Human said: “Brazil has an opportunity to make progress in its fight against stubbornly high smoking rates.

“The overwhelming scientific evidence shows that people are made ill by the smoke from burning tobacco, not by nicotine itself. A regulatory framework that treats every nicotine product as equally dangerous ignores the science and risks keeping smokers on the most harmful product of all – the cigarette.

“Sweden and New Zealand have demonstrated that combining strong tobacco control with access to regulated smoke-free alternatives can dramatically reduce smoking and the diseases it causes.”

Dr Human said ANVISA’s consultation represented an important opportunity to modernise Brazil’s tobacco control strategy.

“Brazil can continue to protect young people while giving adult smokers access to lower-risk alternatives that may help them leave cigarettes behind,” he said. “Regulation should reflect the relative risks of different products. That is the approach most likely to reduce smoking, prevent disease and save lives.”

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