Despite reducing smoking in New Zealand to one of the lowest levels in the world, the country was awarded the Dirty Ashtray Award by the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (GATC) lobby group during the WHO meeting on the tobacco convention in Geneva. Meanwhile, Mexico, which has banned e-cigarettes but allows the tobacco companies' new nicotine products, is praised.
”Absolutely absurd attitude”, say leading scientists and activists.
The COP11 conference on the Tobacco Convention has been underway for a week, bringing together 1400 delegates from 162 countries in Geneva, Switzerland. The purpose of the meeting is to review and evaluate tobacco control efforts around the world. And rarely have the areas of conflict been more apparent. As the nicotine market has changed, with e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn products and nicotine pouches on the rise, opinion on what is the ”right way forward” has generated more debate than the core issue of reducing global smoking.
Vejpkollen was in Geneva to take the pulse of two different sides of the debate: the anti-tobacco movement and the harm reduction movement.
WHO group penalises harm reduction
The WHO-affiliated lobbying organisation Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (GATC) was early to set the tone. On Tuesday, it presented the shame award ”Dirty Ashtray Award” to New Zealand, a country that dramatically reduced smoking in not least by pushing smokers to switch to e-cigarettes.
Smoking has decreased from 16 per cent to 6.9 per cent in 10 years, and today the country ranks just behind Sweden in terms of smoking rates. But this did not impress the GATC.
”They are trying to portray their current tobacco control plan as a success when in reality, since COP10, they have reversed world-leading reforms, sabotaged indigenous tobacco-free aspirations, and have alarming vaping rates among young people.” writes the GATC in its justification for the ”award”.
According to the GATC, such strategies risk favouring the tobacco industry and thus undermining the objectives of the Tobacco Convention.
Change of government in New Zealand changed course
New Zealand attracted international attention when the previous government presented a so-called “generation ban”, whereby people born after a certain year would never be allowed to buy cigarettes. However, following a change of government, both the planned reform and previous decisions to reduce the number of outlets selling nicotine products and the requirement to lower nicotine levels in cigarettes were cancelled. The new government cited economic reasons for the changes. At the same time, it has emerged that low-nicotine cigarettes are in practice not available on the market as the only company that produced them went bankrupt.
Strong focus on harm reduction
In parallel, New Zealand has continued to develop a more explicit harm reduction strategy. The country encourages smokers to switch to e-cigarettes and other smoke-free alternatives. It has worked. Despite extensive regulation - including nicotine caps, marketing bans and bans on disposable models - vejping has started to replace smoking in several communities.
- Smoking among people aged 14 to 24 is down to 3 per cent. Among Māori, smoking has more than halved in 10 years. We see that the availability of regulated but harm-reducing products is driving this trend," said a representative of the New Zealand Ministry of Health during his speech at COP11.
”Not a disgrace award - it's a badge of honour”
According to the GATC, concepts such as “harm reduction” are part of a narrative that favours the tobacco industry. Countries using the strategy are therefore considered, according to the organisation, to be in conflict with the Tobacco Convention. This view is of course not shared by the growing movement that sees products such as e-cigarettes and other smokeless nicotine products as important tools to reduce smoking - not least at the individual level.
Nancy Loucas, Coordinator of Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) argues that the Dirty Ashtray label should rather be seen as a confirmation that you are doing something right.
”New Zealand is challenging the prevailing narrative within the WHO - which says that banning and shaming is the way to ”cure” smokers. New Zealand has managed to reduce smoking without stigmatising smokers and without discriminating against those most in need. This is a real eye-opener for the WHO and its allies. It is very liberating that New Zealand also openly talks about the value of harm reduction while actually highlighting that the Tobacco Convention's requirements, especially high taxes and stigmatisation of smokers, actually have negative consequences for many vulnerable groups. Instead, these groups are now being helped to become smoke-free in the way that works best for them. I think that is precisely why you get the ”prize”. Or as I see it - a ”badge of honour” says Nancy Loucas.
Mexico received the opposite honour
While New Zealand is criticised by the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control, Mexico is praised for its comprehensive ban on the sale and import of e-cigarettes. The ban has contributed to the emergence of a large black market, where organised crime dominates the trade.
- That says a lot about what these lobby groups, who are actively participating in the meeting, actually stand for. It's not about public health, it's about a war on principle against the tobacco companies - with consumers in the firing line. In practice, this means support for continued cigarette sales and new markets for organised crime syndicates. Martin Culip from the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, which is organising the side event Good Cop 2.0 during the WHO week in Geneva.
Increasing smoking - banning e-cigarettes
In Mexico, between 14 and 19 per cent of the population smokes, and among men the figure is around 23 per cent. Smoking has also increased slightly since 2009. Around 20% of cigarette sales are controlled by various criminal syndicates.
Despite the fact that the sale of e-cigarettes is banned - as is their manufacture - an estimated 3 million Mexicans use e-cigarettes. The products are mostly sold on the black market or brought in via risky private imports.
“Vapour products have been banned on paper since 2011. But the ban has been appealed by various companies since then. Those who appealed can actually sell some products legally, at least until the government clarifies the laws so that they do not violate the constitution” says Juan Jose Cirion, lawyer and professor of philosophy at National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Has deleted the vejphoppers - but not the sales
Juan Jose Cirion, himself a vejp user and one of many activists in the country, is actively working to reverse the ban policy and bring about the regulation of vejp products in Mexico. Despite the ban, the number of actual vejp users has increased in the country. "It's worse for the shops, the vejp shoppers," he says.
”Today, there are almost 3 million of us vejpar in Mexico. But our specialised shops have almost completely disappeared. There were around 1000 shops in 2015. Now there are maybe 70,” he says when Vejpkollen meets him during the God COP 2.0 conference.
”There are still a few traders who can sell legally. But it is a small part. Most people buy what they need on the black market. It's relatively easy, but you have to remember that these are unregulated products. We can never be sure what we are buying.” says Juan Jose Cirion.
Highlighted as a ”role model”
The long-running battle to legally purchase vejp products in Mexico has been going on for almost 15 years. Negotiations are ongoing to regulate the market, but the government has repeatedly tried to have the ban written into the constitution. The GATC holds up the Mexican government as a model. When the organisation handed out Orchid Award, the opposite of Dirty Ashtray, emphasised the country's “clear and strong stance on the tobacco industry”.
Nicotine pouches and tobacco companies left behind
Juan Jose Cirion says this is a gross violation by an organisation that claims to work against the tobacco companies. And that the policy in Mexico does not primarily affect the tobacco industry, but the independent e-cigarette industry.
”It's quite comical. The big tobacco companies can now sell both heat-not-burn products and nicotine pouches in Mexico. There is some doubt as to whether or not the heat-not-burn technology should be considered an ”electronic cigarette”, but so far they can be bought over the counter everywhere. Nicotine pouches, on the other hand, are available in every shop today. From a harm reduction perspective, this is fine, as it reduces the risks of nicotine use. But to say that the tobacco companies in Mexico have been ”cracked down on” is completely wrong. However, the independent vejp industry was destroyed.” says Juan Jose Cirion to Vejpkollen.
About GATC and Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Global Alliance for Tobacco Control describes itself as an organisation that reviews “tobacco industry attempts to influence legislation”. The group does not disclose its funding, but works with organisations funded entirely by Bloomberg Philanthropies - the same foundation that funds much of the administrative work of the Tobacco Convention. It regularly awards ”prizes” to countries that it considers to be working against or in favour of the objectives pursued by the Secretariat of the Tobacco Convention.
Bloomberg Philanthropies has been criticised on several occasions for trying to influence legislation against smoke-free nicotine products worldwide through financial ”contributions”.
In the Philippines, it was recently revealed that the organisation, through local groups, funded the drafting of legislation within the Department of Public Health, including to ban e-cigarettes. The intervention was likened to corruption and developed into a political scandal. As a result, e-cigarettes are still allowed, under a regulation similar to that in Europe.
The Philippines was awarded the Dirty Ashtray Award in the same year - the same award now given to New Zealand. The GATC is one of several lobby organisations making regular presentations to delegates during COP11.
