Over 40 international experts have issued a direct appeal to the World Health Organization (WHO), urging it to recognize tobacco harm reduction as an indispensable tool in global public health.
The joint statement, published on The Counterfactual’s “Expert Wall”, was addressed to delegates who attended the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Geneva.
According to the experts, the WHO’s abstinence-only position disregards decades of research on differential risks across nicotine products. They warned that the organization’s approach fails to provide smokers with safer alternatives and unintentionally shields the cigarette industry.
They called for a shift to risk-proportionate regulation, open scientific debate and a focus on reducing smoking rather than nicotine use.
“The goal of reducing the toll of death and disease caused by tobacco requires policies that accurately reflect the epidemiological evidence on the harms of different types of tobacco and nicotine products,” said Dr. Robert West of University College London.
Dr. David Nutt of Imperial College London emphasized the stakes. “Smoking causes a massive burden of death and disease worldwide, killing about 8 million people annually,” he said. “We now have vaping and other smoke-free alternatives to cigarettes that can dramatically cut the risks for people who cannot or do not want to quit using nicotine.”
Dr. Ruth Bonita, former WHO director for NCD Surveillance, said shifting smokers to lower-risk products is vital to breaking the cycle of harm. “Independent evidence, including real-world evidence from New Zealand, shows that regulated, reduced-harm smoke-free nicotine products can accelerate declines in smoking and prevent disease,” she said.
Other experts echoed concerns over the WHO’s reluctance to adopt innovation. Dr. Ann McNeill of King’s College London urged the organization to uphold its own principles and “engage openly with all credible scientists, not just those who echo an ideological line.”
Dr. Andrzej Fal of the Polish Society of Public Health warned that the WHO’s all-nicotine “endgame” distracts from immediate public health needs. “As a pragmatist and practitioner, I believe we should prioritize reducing disease and death, and that means we should focus on reducing smoking in any way we can,” Fal said.
Experts including Dr. Neal Benowitz, Dr. Kenneth Warner and Dr. K. Michael Cummings pointed to a growing evidence base from multiple countries demonstrating that access to safer nicotine alternatives speeds smoking declines and improves population health.
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