Smoke Free Rooms: Reviewing the Recommendations of the FCTC's COP10

This year, the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will be meeting in Panama for its 10th Conference of Parties. It will be recommending that the regulation and taxation of tobacco harm reduction technologies- such as heated tobacco and vapes- should be equalised with that of cigarettes.

As this new paper by Maxwell Marlow highlights, this could seriously set back the government’s smoke free by 2030 target, impacting public services, health and tax revenue in the process.

This paper recommends the following:

• The UK’s delegates should vote against the primary recommended policies, and instead seek to uphold the current, evidence-based health policy of the British government;

• Delegates should seek to outline and implement a Swedish-style solution to tobacco harms globally;

• The UK government should open a wider consultation on the legalisation of snus, and on the future of disposal vapes. This should include the implementation of a Deposit Return Scheme for disposable vapes;

• The Department of Health and Social Care should roll-out nicotine pouches and heated tobacco as part of its Stop to Swap scheme, and include any smoker, regardless of intensity of consumption, on it.