COP11 documents – forward looking measures
Earlier this week a bunch of new documents were added to the COP11 website, related to ‘Forward looking tobacco control measures’. What are ‘forward looking tobacco control measures’? What’s in these documents, and who authored them? And, most importantly, what are the implications for tobacco harm reduction? Read on…
The Convention is the floor, not a ceiling!
In the context of the Framework on Tobacco Control, ‘forward looking’ measures are those which go further than what is stipulated in the Convention. Here is a description from a FCTC ‘technical document’:
“The Convention is often characterized as the floor for tobacco control efforts, and not a ceiling. This is highlighted in Article 2.1, which provides that “In order to better protect human health, Parties are encouraged to implement measures beyond those required by this Convention and its protocols, and nothing in these instruments shall prevent a Party from imposing stricter requirements…”. This supports the implementation, at the discretion of Parties, of policies and measures that may not be specified in the Convention, but which are geared towards the objective of continually and substantially reducing tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.”
https://fctc.who.int/resources/publications/m/item/forward-looking-tobacco-control-measures
Expert Group on forward-looking tobacco control measures
At COP10 it was decided to establish an expert group on ‘forward-looking’ tobacco control measures, to prepare a report to be submitted to COP11. The report will be discussed at the COP11 meeting in Geneva in November, at item 4.1 on the Provisional agenda.
The Expert Group members were selected by the Convention Secretariat – so, regular Copwatch readers will not be shocked to learn that they represent NGO’s who are very anti tobacco harm reduction:
Documents relating to ‘forward looking’ measures, currently published on the COP11 website
1 Forward-looking tobacco control measures, Report by the Expert Group
(FCTC/COP/11/5 – published on the main documents page)
If you only read one, make it this one. Here is where you will find the list of ‘forward-looking’ measures, listed in Annex 2 (page11). It includes the mandate for the Expert Group (page 6) and a draft decision for COP to adopt, in Annex 3 (page 31). And, there are some sneaky suggestions on how the net could be widened – more on those, later.
2 Forward-looking tobacco control measures (in relation to Article 2.1 of the WHO FCTC)
Information document
(FCTC/COP/11/INF.DOC./1 – published on the Additional documents – Information page)
This document just lists the references for the sources in the Report.
3 The Expert Group has met three times since COP10. The notes for these meetings are published on the Supplementary Documents section on the COP11 website, here are the links:
4. Report by the WHO FCTC Knowledge Hub on Legal Challenges to inform the work of the Expert Group on Forward-looking Tobacco Control Measures – posted on the Supplementary Documents page
A background paper, from the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, written in its capacity as the WHO FCTC Knowledge Hub on Legal Challenges. As consumers, we are not particularly interested in this one – but please get in touch if you have read it and you think there’s anything in there which we need to know about.
5. Missing – ‘compilation of information briefs on forward-looking tobacco control measures’
This document is referred to in the report but has yet to appear. However, the measures are all listed in Annex 2, in the Expert Group’s report (see above).
UPDATE, 8 October: The document with the compilation of information briefs (175 pages long) has now been added to the COP11 website, to the Supplementary information page: Compilation of information briefs on forward-looking tobacco control measures developed by the experts
What are the implications for tobacco harm reduction?
The forward looking measures cover tobacco products. However, there is no distinction between the products which cause harm (smoked products) and those which are used to reduce harm – notably snus and heated tobacco products. In addition, there are several suggestions in the Expert Group’s report for extending the measures to cover non tobacco containing nicotine products – we have posted those below.
This week we will be publishing another article on the ‘forward lookers’, with more analysis of the implications for tobacco harm reduction – do keep an eye out for that.
Annex! Not *just* tobacco products – the Expert Group’s suggestions for widening the net
All taken from Forward-looking tobacco control measures, Report by the Expert Group
“The present report focuses on tobacco products as defined by the WHO FCTC, in line with the mandate of the Expert Group. Parties may wish to adopt and apply the FLMs to both tobacco and nicotine products, depending on their domestic definitions, and approach to regulation, of those products.” (page 6)
“Effective, systematic monitoring and enforcement are required, particularly as affected cohorts grow older. The risk of product shifting, particularly among young people, could be mitigated by ensuring that sales of all tobacco and nicotine products are subject to the policy.” (page 16)
“With the right political will, and with expert and careful development and implementation of the model, any barriers to implementation could probably be overcome. A key consideration is that the implementation of this model, if applied to tobacco products only, could lead to tobacco users switching to nicotine products such as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and nicotine pouches. This would mean that their nicotine addiction would be maintained, and the tobacco industry would continue to profit from this addiction, while users face the health, social and economic consequences of their continued addiction.” (page 22)
“As nicotine is a powerfully addictive substance, a regulatory policy that would reduce the nicotine levels in tobacco products could lead to substantial public health benefits from decreases in initiation that would reduce the demand for tobacco and increases in cessation. If implemented across all tobacco products (as well as being considered for nicotine products), this FLM would increase the public health benefits.” (page 24)
“Parties may also consider guiding principles for regulation of flavouring agents and other additives: 1) legislation needs to be comprehensive, to minimize the potential for loopholes; 2) legislation needs to be flexible enough to adapt to developments and for changes to be made easily; and 3) to the extent possible, legislation should apply across all tobacco products (and nicotine and related products), to avoid consumer switching and thus undermining of the impact of the policy.” (page 26)