Electronic cigarettes and tobacco‑free nicotine pouches are now the world’s strongest weapons against smoking, according to a new World Vapers Alliance (WVA) policy paper that calls on the World Health Organization (WHO) to rethink its 20 year old tobacco treaty.

Released to mark the twentieth anniversary of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the report says the treaty’s “outdated, dogmatic” stance against harm reduction has slowed global progress and “likely cost millions of lives.”

It sets out “20 harm-reduction lessons,” led by the argument that regulating products in line with their risk, rather than banning them outright, would help reduce smoking rates quicker.

The authors point to long‑running Public Health England research showing vaping exposes users to at least 95% fewer toxins than combustible cigarettes.

Read the full text here