According to the World Health Organisation tobacco Fact Sheet, tobacco kills up to half of its users who don’t quit. Tobacco also kills more than 8 million people each year, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke. Around 80% of the world's 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.
“There are 18 times as many adults using nicotine products as there are young people in the UK, but all of the political focus is on the small number of young people who are vaping,” said Bates He added that the current regulation was doing more harm than good to the health of smokers as they are being forced to get their nicotine from combustible cigarettes instead of safer nicotine options.
“There are over a billion cigarette smokers, and that should be seen as a public health emergency. We should be looking at whatever we can do to move people as rapidly as possible to non-combustible products. I think it says a lot about the sociology of the field that all the end-game strategies are coercive. We want to force people to change in ways that they don’t want to. What if we told them the truth? What if we gave them better products?” added Sweanor.
She added that the industry has a role to play in the regulation and legislation-making process and is best placed to transform the industry.