In just under two months in Geneva the COP11 will meet, the conference of the parts of the Framework Convention of the World Health Organization for the fight against Tabagismo, which coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the international treaty for the fight against smoke. And despite the many successes of these two decades, there is no shortage of divisive themes: one above all, the refusal of WHO to recognize the usefulness of damage reduction strategies, or the use of alternatives to traditional smoke products, such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco devices. An international Expert Meeting was dedicated to the theme, in which experts and researchers have presented the most recent data on the effectiveness of alternative smoke products, and discussed the best strategies to be adopted in the future.
Alternatives work
Electronic cigarettes, tobacco bags, heated tobacco devices, are all products marketed as less harmful than traditional cigarettes. I’m not a healthy vice – it’s clear – but they should do less damage than a tobacco cigarette. The doubt is therefore whether or not to encourage the use to assist the smokers who decide to stop. And the data presented today seem to indicate that it is an effective strategies: in the countries that have adopted alternatives to traditional smoke responsibly, there would be a significant drop in consumption, especially in the youngest, including the spread of the vice of smoke would pass from 33 to 18 percent.
“On young people it feeds on a bias of interpretation, which negatively affects the scientific debate and, above all, creates confusion among smokers,” explained Dr. Fabio Beatrice, director of the scientific board of the Mediterranean Observatory of Harm Reduction (Mohre). “Cigarette smoke continues to be widespread among teenagers: almost one in three student has smoked cigarettes at least once in life (32 percent on average). A phenomenon that is part of the experimentation process of this age group, difficult to modify. If we look at the data of the last 30 years of Espad, the decline in the prevalence has been greater among young people (from 70 percent to 30 percent). At 8 percent.
A hot theme
This is the case of Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Sweden, where this approach has produced concrete results. Within the European Union, the situation is more articulated: France and Spain follow a more restrictive line also towards products without combustion, while Italy, Greece and Romania support a differentiated regulation that takes into account the risk reduction potential. In such a situation – the experts underline – the COP11 represents a perfect opportunity to promote a dialogue based on scientific evidence, putting the health of citizens and the effectiveness of public policies at the center.
In fact, several scientific societies of international importance have now begun to accept the idea that against the damage of smoking, the reduction of damage can be a way to go. The guidelines for the smoking cessation of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Network published in May 2025 contain, for example, the indication of supporting patients who decide to try to stop using electronic cigarettes, despite the awareness that the time will come then also to stop with e-cig, given that even these alternative tools, in fact, cause dependence and are not exempt from health risks.