For public health reasons, the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged signatory countries to its global tobacco treaty to prohibit or control the use of e-cigarettes and other cutting-edge tobacco products.
During a virtual media briefing on the global tobacco treaty on Tuesday, the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals made the call.
The WHO’s global tobacco treaty is an evidence-based agreement that upholds everyone’s right to the best possible standard of health, according to the National Institutes of Health, which also pointed out that e-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that users use to heat liquid into a vapor that can be inhaled.
The 10th Conference of Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was held in Panama, and in advance of it, Sabina Jacazzi, the Treaty Officer, Legal Affairs, at WHO FCTC, explained how tobacco products include new and developing products made by the tobacco industry.
The COP, she said, had made decisions on novel and emerging tobacco products, such as heated tobacco products, electronic nicotine delivery systems, and non-nicotine delivery systems. It had made it clear that HTPs were tobacco products and fell under the purview of the WHO FCTC.
Regarding the most recent scientific evidence and policy recommendations on these products, she specifically mentioned and quoted from the reports that will be discussed at COP10, which are available online and were written by the WHO and the Convention Secretariat.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director, of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, was among the international experts present at the event.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director, of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, stated in his speech that although the most recent data indicated a worldwide decrease in smoking, it also disclosed that the tobacco industry was implementing new strategies to trick government officials and mislead the public.
