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By Damiete Braide, Lagos
The World Health Organ isation (WHO) has urged member nations of its global tobacco treaty to ban or regulate e-cigarettes and other novel and emerging products of the tobacco industry, if they are yet to do so, in the interest of public health.
It made the call yesterday at a virtual media workshop ahead of the 10th Conference of Parties to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Con trol (WHO FCTC – the global tobacco treaty) in Panama.
Treaty Officer (Legal Af fairs) at WHO FCTC, Sabina Timco Jacazzi, noted that the tobacco industry’s novel and emerging products fall under the category of tobacco products.
Jacazzi was responding to a question on whether the COP was unfairly ignoring such products, and whether such products were safe alterna tives to cigarettes.
Jacazzi said: “The COP has adopted decisions on novel and emerging tobacco products, including heated
tobacco products (HTPs), and electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems (ENDS/ENNDS). It has clari fied that HTPs are tobacco products and are subject to the WHO FCTC.
“As for ENDS/ENNDS, the COP clarified that Parties that have not banned these
should regulate them to prevent their initiation by youth and vulnerable groups, minimize potential health risks to users and those who are exposed to these products, prevent unproven health claims from being made about these products and protect tobacco control activities from commercial interests of the Industry (tobacco and related
to ENDS/ENNDS).
“To the latest scientific evidence and policy recom mendations on these prod
ucts, I very much encourage checking the reports that will be considered at COP10, available online.”
The event, organised by the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT), featured experts from around the world, including Akinbode Oluwa femi, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Publi Participation Africa (CAPPA).Oluwafemi noted that the
latest data showed a global decline in smoking but warned that the tobacco industry was adopting new tactics to
deceive government officials and ensnare the public.
He said: “We’re having a trend now where the industry is trying to position itself as part of the solution and not
the problem. That is also similar to what we had at the climate conference (2023 UN Climate Change Conference – COP 28) where the fossil fuel industry promoted net zero and some other false solutions.
“What are the false solu tions now being promoted on our continent, and possibly
on the global level? We have seen the influx of novel prod ucts, for instance, e-cigarettes, and attempts by the tobacco
industry to subvert the Min istry of Health, which is the ministry that champions the FCTCT implementation
in-country.
“They go through the Ministry of Trade and Invest ment and other agencies of
government to get backdoor legal documents for their products, and with that has been the influx of media articles, influencers online and social media campaigns, among others.”
Oluwafemi urged the media to be alert to conversa tions driven by the industry,
adding that the tobacco indus try is also increasingly using the so-called alternatives as an attack on the FCTCT process itself.Other experts on the panel included Daniel Dorado, Tobacco Campaign Director, Corporate Accountabil ity (CA); Labram Musah, Executive Director, Vision
for Alternative Development in Ghana; Blanca Llorente, Research Director, Fundación Anaas in Colombia; Dr Tara
Singh Bam, Board Director, Asia Pacific Cities Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT) in Singapore; and Shobha Shukla, Founding Managing Editor, CNS in India.
