International health experts have urged the new head of global tobacco control to take the pragmatic harm-reduction approach that has transformed Britain’s fight against smoking onto the world stage.
In an open letter to Andrew Black, the newly appointed Head of the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Smoke Free Sweden leader Dr Delon Human commends his record in leading tobacco control at the UK Department of Health and calls on him to ensure smokers worldwide are not denied safer alternatives to cigarettes.
Black led the UK tobacco-control programme during a period of major reductions in adult and youth smoking and helped oversee landmark measures including smoke-free legislation.
Pragmatism beats prohibition
The UK also developed an increasingly pragmatic approach to harm reduction, regulating vaping rather than prohibiting it and allowing adult smokers access to safer alternatives to combustible cigarettes.
The results have been striking. Latest figures from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) show that 4.8 million former smokers in Great Britain say they used a vape to quit smoking, while 58% of those who quit in the past five years used vaping to do so.
The evidence supporting that approach is continuing to grow. An updated Cochrane review published last month found high-certainty evidence that nicotine vapes produce higher quit rates than nicotine-replacement therapies such as patches and gum. Cochrane described regulated nicotine vaping as a “proven and viable option” for smokers seeking to quit.
Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration has authorised 20 ZYN nicotine pouch products to carry a modified-risk claim, concluding that switching completely from cigarettes to these specific products lowers the risk of several major smoking-related diseases.
Restrictions defy evidence
Yet Smoke Free Sweden warns that policy is moving in the opposite direction in parts of Europe.
The UK Government is currently consulting on new restrictions covering the packaging, appearance, flavour descriptions and retail display of vaping and nicotine products. The European Commission is also preparing a major revision of EU tobacco legislation, with alternative nicotine products firmly in its sights.
Dr Human said:
“Andrew Black has seen first-hand that successful tobacco control requires more than telling smokers to quit. Britain combined tough measures against cigarettes with a pragmatic willingness to give adults access to safer alternatives.
“The evidence has become stronger since then. Millions of Britons have used vaping to quit, Cochrane confirms that vapes outperform traditional nicotine replacement therapy, and the FDA has formally recognised the reduced-risk potential of specific nicotine pouches.
“It would be a tragedy if the very approach that helped Britain accelerate away from smoking were now denied to millions of smokers elsewhere.
“We urge Mr Black to bring the pragmatism that characterised Britain’s success into his new role and ensure that global tobacco policy distinguishes between the deadly risks of smoking and the far lower risks of smoke-free alternatives.”
The open letter concludes: “Millions of smokers around the world deserve the same opportunity that millions of Britons have already had: a realistic route away from smoking.”
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