
GSTHR
The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR)
An end to smoking is within reach, according to at least one group, and it must not
be allowed to slip away.
It is a viewpoint that augurs good things for the vaping industry.
In a landmark new report titled The Right Side of History:
The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction 2022 (GSTHR),
experts are calling on global policymakers to seize the
opportunity to bring about an end to smoking, which every
year kills eight-million people worldwide.
Knowledge-Action-Change Limited (K-A-C) is a London,
England-based private organization founded by Professor
Gerry Stimson in 2011, along with its communications
arm, KAC Communications, in 2014. It is funded by the
Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW), which is in
turn funded by Philip Morris International (PMI).
“Despite years of investment and effort, international tobacco
control measures have stalled: the number of smokers has
remained static at 1.1 billion for 20 years,” the group points
out in a release. “But the past two decades have also seen
the emergence of new options to reduce smoking-related
death and disease, which are not caused by nicotine, but by
thousands of chemicals released when tobacco burns.”
Tobacco harm reduction encourages people who smoke and
who either cannot, or do not want to stop using nicotine,
to switch to significantly safer products, such as vapes or
e-cigarettes. Other methods include tobacco-free nicotine
pouches, Swedish-style snus and heated tobacco products.
GSTHR estimates show that over 112 million people already
use these products worldwide. “Yet these significantly
safer products face prohibitive regulation or bans in many
countries, while the sale of deadly combustible cigarettes is
universally legal.”
Strategy to End Smoking
K-A-C’s The Right Side of History charts the story of tobacco
harm reduction to date, and considers the future for a
strategy that could end smoking. The disruptive potential of
safer nicotine products – to public health, to governments
and regulators, and to commercial interests – has been, it
judges, “significant and is not yet fully realized.”
In the report, author Harry Shapiro documents the search for
safer ways to use nicotine, which has been “beset with many
false starts.” He explores the role of individual innovators and
nicotine consumers in the development of safer products
and harm reduction, the establishment of the Chinese vaping
industry, and the mistrust seeded by the late entrance of the
traditional tobacco industry into the safer product market,
the release noted. “It has also led to the spread of mis- and
disinformation, which is currently inhibiting the potential of
safer products to save lives.”
At the report’s launch, GSTHR project lead Stimson argued
that policymakers must integrate tobacco harm reduction
into the international response to smoking, giving millions
of adult smokers new choices to support them to quit.
"Ideology must be set aside in favor of an openness to
new thinking, and a critical but balanced evaluation of the
science. Evidence shows that people will switch away from
deadly smoking to safer nicotine products if they are given
the chance. An end to smoking is within reach -- we must
not let it slip from our grasp."
“It was individuals working outside the tobacco industry
who pursued innovations that began the journey towards
modern safer nicotine products,” a summary within the
report contended. “A Chinese pharmacist developed the
vapor technology that would kickstart a quiet revolution in
safer nicotine consumption: the e-cigarette. A new industry
sprang up in the city of Shenzhen in China in the 2000’s –
and consumers worldwide began to adopt the products.”
People who smoke “should have the right to access lowerrisk products that evidence shows are amongst the most
effective tools for cessation,” the report argued. To this end,
consumer advocacy organizations have formed worldwide,
and have had some notable successes in retaining that right
in some countries and regions. “Yet, at the highest levels of
international policymaking, these people are barred from
participation in decisions that directly affect their health.”
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control includes
harm reduction, it added, “but the approach has been
ignored in its implementation to date. In light of new
developments in nicotine consumption, and in consideration
of the fundamental human right to health, harm reduction
now can and should be incorporated into international and
national tobacco control efforts.”
Experts Say
Among the experts and organizations quoted by the group
about the need for e-cigarettes and other tobacco harm
reduction items are these:
Public Health England: “Our new review reinforces the
finding that vaping is a fraction of the risk of smoking, at
least 95% less harmful, and of negligible risk to bystanders.
Yet over half of smokers either falsely believe that vaping is as
harmful as smoking or just don’t know.”
The New Zealand Ministry of Health: “The Ministry
considers vaping products could disrupt inequities and
contribute to a Smokefree 2025. The evidence on vaping
products indicates they carry much less risk than smoking
cigarettes… Evidence is growing that vaping can help people
to quit smoking. There is no international evidence that
vaping products are undermining the long-term decline in
cigarette smoking among adults and youth and may in fact
be contributing to it.”