World No Tobacco Day: Tobacco industry remains main obstacle to quitting

On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2021 (WNTD), the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a global campaign under the slogan “Commit to Quit”. The campaign’s goal is to help 100 million people quit smoking through a variety of digital initiatives and tools. According to WHO, this goal can be achieved by creating the conditions that support smoking cessation, including supporting proven cessation policies, improving access to cessation services for all, and raising awareness of the tobacco industry’s tactics that are putting all their efforts into artwork to attract a new consumer base[1].

A majority of tobacco users (60%) worldwide want to quit smoking but many do not have the means or adequate support to do so. Without assistance, only 4 to 7% of those who try to quit smoking succeed. Currently, more than 70% of the world's 1.3 billion tobacco users do not have access to proven treatments to successfully quit smoking.[2]. This lack of access to cessation services has been exacerbated by the Covid19 pandemic. The tobacco industry, for its part, is doing everything it can to actively promote its new tobacco and nicotine products to address the decline of traditional cigarettes.

Tobacco industry an obstacle to overall reduction of nicotine addiction

The tobacco industry is misleading the public about proven and effective methods of quitting by actively promoting its new tobacco and nicotine products.[3]. It discourages consumers from completely stopping the use of tobacco and nicotine products. Through this promotion, the industry diverts attention from responsibility for the harm caused by its products and weakens proven tobacco control measures. Tobacco manufacturers market their new products as “safer alternatives” or even “smoking cessation aids”, although the WHO has pointed out that the various products placed on the market are not harmless and risk-free. Through their marketing campaigns of a “smoke-free world” and a “better future” under the guise of the harm reduction argument, manufacturers convey a reassuring message about their new products in order to dissuade smokers from stopping tobacco and nicotine consumption.

Scientific disinformation at the heart of the industry's marketing strategy

Philip Morris (PMI), through its Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, and British American Tobacco (BAT) are taking advantage of this JMST to communicate about their new products on their respective websites. You can read on the Foundation's website "The Foundation urges adult smokers to commit to quitting smoking combustibles and chewing toxic smokeless tobacco products or switching to a growing range of less harmful nicotine-based alternatives ". The PMI front group does not hesitate to attack the WHO's health policies and measures, which it considers "inadequate to reduce the number of smokers worldwide" and claims that the "challenges smokers face when trying to quit smoking have been largely ignored". For the Philip Morris Foundation, the only answer remains technological innovation, which it believes offers a new way forward for smokers. A similar discourse for BAT, which indicates in its report on the "role of e-cigarettes in reducing risks" that reducing the impact of their activity on health is at the heart of their objective by creating a "better future by offering the widest range of reduced-risk alternatives to cigarettes".

WHO recalls that treatments for the management of smoking cessation exist and have been proven to be effective. These proven smoking cessation treatments must be made accessible to smokers who wish to quit and they need to be associated with other tobacco control measures such as tax increases, the establishment of smoke-free environments, the banning of sales to minors, the banning of flavors, etc.