A group of tobacco harm reduction experts called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to acknowledge innovative products such as vapes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches, saying the organization’s prohibitionist approach contradicts its mission to reduce tobacco-related deaths.

In an international webinar titled "How the WHO undermines World No Tobacco Day," the Taxpayer's Protection Alliance (TPA) slammed the WHO's reluctance to support harm reduction tools despite growing evidence of their effectiveness in helping smokers quit.

TPA fellow Martin Cullip, a prominent harm reduction advocate, said the WHO is "ignoring the populations most at risk."

"The WHO dismisses adult smokers and vapers, even though adults bear the vast majority of tobacco-related harm. It's odd to see the organization celebrate bans on products that aren't even made from tobacco," said Cullip.

Participants from Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom alleged that the WHO's prohibitionist stance is counterproductive, exacerbating smoking-related deaths and fueling black markets.

Pippa Starr, founder of ALIVE (Australia, Let’s Improve Vaping Education), said the WHO has not changed its rhetoric over the past decade. “About 11 or 12 years ago, they said in their statement that if we keep going as we are right now, we're going to lose up to a billion lives this century. That's what they said. Eleven or 12 years later, how much success have they had? Well, right as we stand, we're on track to lose 1.2 billion lives this century,” said Starr.

Starr particularly cited Australia's challenges, saying, "Australia has a massive black market and 66 people die daily from smoking-related disease. These outcomes are tied to WHO-endorsed policies. Rather than reward failed approaches, the WHO should be focused on saving lives."

Kurt Yeo, international harm reduction advocate and co-founder of VSML (Vaping Saved My Life), criticized the WHO's detachment from on-the-ground realities. "WHO policies are scripted and disconnected. We need a full range of tools to achieve a smoke-free future. Prohibition has failed in countries like Mexico, India, and Singapore. The WHO isn't facing the real issues," he said.

“Our biggest challenge when it comes to ‘no tobacco’ is trying to find ways to help people quit smoking. And when you have a country like, for Africa, where we don't have cessation support, we have an enormous illicit cigarette trade, and we have no real will to help people quit smoking. It's just doesn't fit,” said Yeo.

Reem Ibrahim, communications manager at the UK's Institute of Economic Affairs, said the WHO is ignoring scientific evidence. "Harm reduction works. These products help people quit. But the WHO's strategy blocks access and ultimately harms public health."

Ibrahim said countries such as the UK and Sweden have embraced tobacco harm reduction. The National Health Service in the UK said very specifically in its website that vaping can be used as a tool to help people quit smoking.

The NHS said “while nicotine is a highly addictive drug, it does not contain toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, including tar and tobacco.”

“It is the many other toxic chemicals contained in tobacco smoke that cause almost all the harm from smoking. Nicotine itself does not cause cancer, lung disease, heart disease or stroke and has been used safely for many years in medicines to help people stop smoking,” the NHS said.

Ibrahim said Sweden has been able to bring down its smoking rates to below 5 percent, which could be described as the smoke-free threshold. “They've been able to do so by allowing adults to choose safer and healthier, low-risk nicotine products, namely, snus which is culturally important in Sweden, and it's effective in that way,” he said.

“This is entirely an antithesis to what the World Health Organization has advocated for,” Ibrahim said.

Responding to the webinar, the Nicotine Consumers Union of the Philippines (NCUP) said other nicotine-delivery forms such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches have helped millions of smokers quit.

"Tobacco harm reduction (THR) provides consumers with alternatives to smoking cigarettes, allowing them to choose products which are less harmful to them," said NCUP president Anton Israel.

Israel said THR, as a public health strategy, is more effective than outright bans in reducing the adverse health effects associated with tobacco use, particularly for individuals unwilling or unable to quit nicotine entirely.

Israel said smoke-free alternatives to combustible cigarettes deliver nicotine with significantly reduced exposure to the toxicants found in tobacco smoke.

The TPA urged the WHO to embrace innovation and engage with consumers to address the global smoking crisis, asserting that tobacco harm reduction (THR) offers a more effective approach to helping smokers quit than outright prohibition.

Scientific studies indicate that harm reduction works, with e-cigarettes being at least 95 percent less harmful than traditional cigarettes, a finding supported by the UK Health Security Agency and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (formerly Public Health England).

The NHS said that while not risk-free, vaping is "far less harmful than smoking," and has helped thousands of smokers quit.

“Nicotine vapes are one of the most effective stop smoking aids,” said the NHS, which has begun trials providing e-cigarettes to smokers.

The TPA panelists said that despite the WHO’s stated goal of reducing tobacco-related deaths, it continues to resist safer alternatives proven to help smokers quit.

Panelists underscored the contradiction in the WHO's mission, arguing that while claiming to reduce tobacco deaths, it opposes safer alternatives proven to help smokers quit.

The group urged the WHO and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to embrace innovation, listen to consumers and support harm reduction as a legitimate path to ending the global smoking epidemic.