By Albert Allotey
Accra, May 30, GNA â The Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development – Ghana (VAST-Ghana), a public health-focused civil society group has rejected the Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) strategies by tobacco industry and its allied groups and described it as misleading.
It said the strategies had recently fuelled the rise of e-cigarette and vaping products, which contain nicotine and other chemicals, and had contributed to the influx of illicit tobacco products on the Ghanaian market due to the misleading narratives around their safety.
âThe Tobacco Harm Reduction strategies are against the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) measures to reduce or prevent harm caused by tobacco and nicotine,â the VAST-Ghana said.
A statement issued by Mr Labram M. Musah, Executive Director of VAST-Ghana, and the National Coordinator, Ghana NCD Alliance and copied to the Ghana News Agency has stated.
It said, âVAST Ghana and other key stakeholders firmly reject the persistent call by tobacco industry allied groups masquerading as independent think-tanks and policy innovators promoting tobacco use, particularly among children, young people and youth, through their so-called Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) strategies.â
The statement said, âIf nicotine pouches, e-cigarettes, and heated tobacco products are truly therapeutic or clinically safer alternatives to conventional tobacco products, they must be subjected to rigorous clinical trials, classified as pharmaceutical interventions, and dispensed strictly through medical prescriptions at health facilities.â
It noted that instead, they are aggressively marketed in convenience stores, gas stations, and, most tellingly, online platforms frequented by adolescents.
âThis strategy directly contradicts Ghanaâs obligations under the FCTC Article 13 and the Ghana Public Health Act, which calls for a comprehensive ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship,â It stated.
The statement said public health interventions must be evidence-based and population-sensitive, adding, unlike vaccines or antiretrovirals, which undergo years of clinical trials, so-called harm reduction tobacco products were introduced into markets without adequate long-term studies on their cumulative health effects.
âThe reality is clear: these products are not medicines. They are the industry’s trojan horse – products deceptively framed as alternatives while intentionally engineered to sustain addiction and market control.
âThey are products designed, packaged, and promoted to secure a new generation of nicotine users in the face of global tobacco control progress,â it said.
The statement pointed out that the WHO has repeatedly warned against the adoption of e-cigarettes and similar products as public health strategies.
âIn its 2023 Call to Action on Electronic Cigarettes, the WHO emphasized that these products are harmful and that their unregulated use undermines decades of progress in tobacco control,â it stated.
It said the WHO explicitly discouraged the use of e-cigarettes as a cessation tool and recommended caution, especially in countries where regulatory infrastructure was weak.
The statement said in Ghana, the Food and Drugs Authority enforced a complete ban on the sale, advertisement, and recreational use of e-cigarettes, classifying them as illegal, while traditional cigarettes remained legal but were subjected to stringent regulations under the Public Health Act, 2012, to protect public health.
âMore importantly, if Ghana were to fully implement the existing provisions of the WHO FCTC, including higher excise taxes, graphic health warnings, complete bans on tobacco advertising, and restrictions on product placement and availability, we would not need to entertain a harm reduction narrative crafted to keep the industry viable,â it said.
In this context, harm reduction is not about public health; it is a deliberate strategy by the tobacco industry to shift from combustible cigarettes to nicotine-based products like e-cigarettes, sustaining addiction and ensuring ongoing profits by replacing one market with another, it stated.
âIf the tobacco industry and its allies genuinely cared about saving lives, they would champion taxation increases, plain packaging, and cessation programmes – not lobby for the deregulation of addictive products,â it stated
It said Ghana must not become a testing ground for failed strategies imported from different socio-economic and healthcare contexts.
The statement urged Parliament and regulatory authorities to reject any amendments or policy suggestions that sought to normalize nicotine consumption outside of strict medical contexts.
âWe commend the Ministry of Health, through the Food Drugs Authority, as well as the unwavering role of civil society organizations, particularly VAST-Ghana, for standing firm in the face of aggressive industry lobbying to legalize products that threaten to worsen Ghanaâs public health burden,â it said.
It said the tobacco industryâs survival depends on undermining the very measures that have proven effective in reducing smoking, stating that its latest tactic, framed as âharm reduction,â was a deliberate attempt to derail collective progress in advancing tobacco control.
âLet us not be deceived. The future of Ghanaâs health cannot be traded for the illusion of innovation. No to the normalization of addiction.â
GNA
Edited by George-Ramsey Benamba