Tobacco Asia

26 tobaccoasia Issue 5, 2023 September / October Staff Report The 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) will take place in Panama November 20-25, fol- lowed by the third Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (MOP3). This will be the first time since 2018 that the meetings will be held in person. The last meet- ing in 2021 was held virtually and more or less deferred all decisions to COP10. What did come out of COP9, though, was the decision to move forward with the development and launch of an investment fund to provide revenue which would be used to support FCTC activities. Overseeing the fund would be a committee comprised of "ex- perts in financial and investment management" and "observers from civil society", all selected by FCTC's governing body and the World Bank. Originally designed 20 years ago to be the first international treaty to address the perceived harms of combustible tobacco, FCTC has extended its scope to include in its crosshairs new tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches as well, despite these products being less harmful alternatives to combustible to- bacco. Ironic, considering that the scope of FCTC as determined in Article 1.d defines tobacco con- trol as "a range of supply, demand, and harm re- duction strategies that aim to improve the health of a population by eliminating or reducing their consumption of tobacco products and exposure to tobacco smoke". The articles that follow discuss measures thought to be necessary to reduce demand as well as supply of tobacco products, yet there are no articles that focus specifically on harm reduc- tion. And, as seen up until now, FCTC's preferred method of tobacco control is more total bans rath- er than harm reduction, complete annihilation of tobacco in all shapes, forms, and purposes. The COP10 provisional agenda shows del- egates will be covering topics including the "depic- tion of tobacco in entertainment media", "forward- looking tobacco control measures", and "novel and emerging tobacco products." What comes out of discussion on that last topic should be somewhat interesting to see, considering documents prepared by WHO and the Convention Secretariat focusing on "research and evidence" and "challenges posed The Lead-Up to COP10 COP10 is looking more likely to be as anti-vape as it is anti-smoking. Credit: Mike Mozart, Creative Commons 2.0 There seems to be little chance that new tobacco products will be getting fair representation at COP10.

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