Filter ban: main daily lessons from the negotiations of the second session of the CIN

The second meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-2) of the United Nations treaty to end plastic pollution was held from May 29 to June 2 in Paris. About a hundred public health associations (including the National Committee against Smoking in France), grouped under the Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance (STPA) coalition, participated in these negotiations to bring about a ban on cigarette filters. The director of public policy for the organization Action for Smoking & Health United States (ASH), Chris Bostic, participated directly in these negotiations and shared daily the progress presented in this document.

On May 29, the second negotiation session of the UN treaty to end plastic pollution opened at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Due to space constraints, the UN Secretariat has warned that each observer delegation—such as the ASH delegation and other observer NGOs—will be limited to one representative in the building at a time. ASH has therefore assembled a strong team of five seasoned tobacco control negotiators to push the filter ban measure among the national delegations present.

Day 1 – Negotiations marked by civil society protests

The start of the negotiations was marked by protests from NGOs, whose access to the discussion forums was severely restricted, mainly due to the large number of participants. However, this participation of NGOs is all the more essential since they are the custodians of expertise in the areas studied and they warn of the weight of lobbies, which are very present and likely to influence provisions that are not in line with the general interest.

Indeed, while the threat posed by plastic pollution to health and the planet is real and undeniable – including pollution from cigarette filters – the industrialists involved in these negotiations are doing everything they can to oppose it in order to preserve their profits.

In addition to international tensions, particularly between Russia and Ukraine, several countries, led by Saudi Arabia, have repeatedly invoked procedural issues to block the process of substantive negotiations. While many countries fully understand the threat to the planet and are sincerely trying to find a solution, several national delegations are there only to defend the interests of the petrochemical, plastic and tobacco industries, which are causing environmental degradation.

In the absence of consensus, a secret ballot was held.

Day 2 – Adoption of treaty measures by consensus or vote

Before the start of the negotiations, the Committee adopted all the rules of procedure for the negotiations, except one, namely how decisions will be made. The Committee either works by consensus or allows voting.

If consensus is chosen, it means that everyone has a veto. Of the 175 countries present, 174 countries could agree on the best course of action and only one country could oppose it. At the international level, several countries, as we know, have no interest in this treaty succeeding and could therefore block any progress. Another reason that argued in favor of resorting to a vote: no country is forced to ratify the treaties. If a country is not satisfied with the final text of the treaty, it can simply refuse to ratify it and not be bound by international law.

Day 3 – Joint declaration for a ban on cigarette filters carried by the STPA associations and around thirty environmental associations on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day

On the third day, the INC began to address substantive issues. Delegations in the plenary then worked in two contact groups established with a breakdown of agenda items. These groups then report back to the plenary. Once the conclusions are adopted by the plenary, these discussions form the basis of the first draft of the treaty, which the UNEP secretariat will prepare in the interim until the next INC meeting in November in Kenya. This will be supplemented by written contributions from delegations, as well as from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations such as Action on Smoking and Health.

During this first day devoted to negotiations on the substance, a hundred STPA organizations and environmental organizations joined forces to challenge the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-2) on the issue of cigarette filters. The declaration also refers to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first international health treaty, ratified by 182 parties and which recommends that tobacco manufacturers be held liable for the environmental damage caused by their products.

A press release was issued: More than 130 health and environmental stakeholders call for filter ban at plastic treaty negotiations in Paris

While this was the most promising day for the treaty as a whole, the request by ASH and its allies – to ban cigarette filters – made progress and met with a high level of support from both civil society actors and government delegations.

Day 4 – Plastics Qualification

One of the most important debates of the day was how to classify the thousands of types of plastics, their components, their toxicity, in order to adopt a coherent approach to ending plastic pollution. Some advocated focusing on toxicity criteria, eliminating the most toxic and polluting. This coherent and promising approach places the emphasis upstream in the product lifecycle, and is distinct from approaches focused on downstream solutions, such as waste management and recycling. However, this approach also has its limits. Sometimes, relatively harmless chemicals can be used to make a product that, once released onto the market, causes terrible harm: this is the case, for example, with cigarette filters.

Cellulose acetate, the plastic in filters, is not made from petrochemicals and is not particularly toxic in itself. Its toxicity is linked to the consumption of the product: burning tobacco alters the product, and tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, including toxins, carcinogens, and heavy metals that contaminate soil and waterways when filters are improperly disposed of. Furthermore, the filter has no health justification for the smoker and may even make matters worse, as it is linked to some more aggressive forms of lung cancer.

To be effective in tackling plastic pollution, the UN Plastics Treaty will need to take a holistic approach and recognise the importance of considering the entire lifecycle of plastic products. When it comes to regulating filters, the tobacco industry is sure to exploit any loophole in the treaty. It was heartening to see so many countries rally around important themes, such as recognising that we cannot recycle or reinvent all types of plastic; some, like cigarette filters, simply need to go away altogether.

Day 5 – Cigarette filter ban begins to take hold

The CIN secretariat is responsible for preparing a draft treaty for the 3^th negotiating session that will take place in mid-November 2023. The text must be ready 90 days before the start of the session so that the parties have the opportunity to study and discuss it in their countries and in each region. This means that the secretariat has 44 days to draft this document. A task that may seem complicated given the hundreds of interventions, all of which must be taken into account in one way or another.

As for STPA's goal of eliminating cigarette filters, the week was marked by many successes. STPA members met with dozens of governments and found broad support for this measure.

However, there are still many misconceptions to overcome - many people, not just smokers, believe that filters make cigarettes less toxic.

Negotiating a treaty of this magnitude and complexity in five negotiating sessions over two years is ambitious, to say the least. While STPA’s participation in these negotiations is focused on a very specific request, the fact remains that filters are a perfect illustration of the scale of this global plastic pollution problem and that all stakeholders need to work together to reduce this major pollution.

To read the blog of Chris Bostic, Policy Director of Action for Smoking and Health,

List of members of the Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance

Keywords: Plastic Treaty, UNESCO, STPA, Filters, cigarette butts, plastic, negotiations,