Amman – In a recent report recently published in the pages of the world’s leading medical journal, The Lancet, it was called for the need to make the “risk reduction” strategy a central focus within the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, alongside measures to limit supply and demand.
The report, which focused on the position of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on the “Tobacco Harm Reduction” strategy, confirmed that it is one of the urgent issues that concerns all parties in various countries of the world, and which was prepared by both former World Health Organization officials, Robert Beaglehole and Ruth Bonita, On the effectiveness of alternative products in achieving positive results in combating smoking.
According to the report, its authors, Robert Beaglehole and Ruth Bonita, confirmed that the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control succeeded in achieving a global response to tobacco control, but the implementation of the Convention’s measures did not succeed in reducing smoking rates and cigarette consumption.
The authors explained that the World Health Organization’s failure to adopt a harm reduction strategy limits the health options available to about 1.3 billion smokers around the world who face an increased risk of premature death. They also stressed that there is no scientific justification for the World Health Organization’s position that treats alternative products as E-cigarettes and new nicotine products are treated in the same way as traditional cigarettes.
Robert Beaglehole and Ruth Bonita called on the World Health Organization to reconsider its position on these less harmful products, stressing that burning tobacco is the main cause of harm resulting from smoking, and that many countries of the world have witnessed significant declines in smoking rates coinciding with the use of nicotine products. New ones, including Japan, which witnessed a significant decline in cigarette consumption with the support of “heating tobacco instead of burning it” products.
The authors pointed out that low- and middle-income countries have achieved less progress as a result of weak capabilities and political desire to strengthen tobacco control measures, which necessitates the need to push the World Health Organization and strengthen the capabilities of these countries to implement a “risk reduction” strategy and allow the circulation of electronic cigarettes and alternative tobacco products that rely on tobacco. Heating and others.
The two former global health officials confirmed that the tobacco industry continues to expand its markets in low- and middle-income countries, to maintain profitability, but it will eventually be forced to shift its global business to risk-adjusted alternatives that may be less harmful.
The authors pointed out that the Tenth Conference of the Parties (COP10) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which is the governing body of the Convention, will be held in Panama from February 5 to 9, 2024. They also called for the necessity of allowing the circulation of nicotine products and regulating them in a manner consistent with the strategy of “Risk reduction” has proven successful since earlier.
The authors stressed that the strategy to reduce tobacco harm is considered the quickest and fairest way to reduce smoking rates, and that the World Health Organization needs to adopt these innovations in the delivery of nicotine, and that countries that reap the benefits of reducing tobacco harm, such as New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, England, and Japan, should encourage Countries participating in COP10 support proposals that will lead to a rapid reduction in smoking rates, warning that one billion and three hundred million smokers in the world, half of whom are at risk of premature death as a result of consuming traditional cigarettes.
