Tobacco Harm Reduction: too serious a matter to be left to the tobacco industry

The WHO/FCTC defines tobacco control as resting on three pillars: tobacco demand reduction, tobacco supply reduction and tobacco harm reduction (THR). While the treaty amply covers the first two (with articles and guidelines for their implementation), it is silent on the third, THR. This has created a vacuum that the tobacco industry has opportunistically exploited, claiming ownership of THR and turning it into a marketing and public relations tool, using it to divide the tobacco control community. The speaker will analyse this phenomenon and offer his views on how to remedy the situation, with a view to giving back THR the place it should always have had in tobacco control.