LIFESTYLE | Consumer choice seen as key to ending smoking

Consumer groups are urging authorities worldwide to respect their right to choose safer nicotine products as a way to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals in traditional cigarettes.

Carissa Düring, director of Considerate Pouchers in Sweden, a global consumer advocacy group, said consumer choice plays a crucial role in ending the smoking problem. The group promotes a smoke-free world while advocating for consumer rights to less harmful alternatives to cigarettes.

Sweden is often cited as a successful example of tobacco harm reduction (THR) — a public health strategy that promotes less harmful alternatives to cigarettes, such as vapes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches.

“Since 2016, we’ve had nicotine pouches,” Düring said at the recent 11th Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) held in Poland. “They were invented here, and they have contributed to decreasing smoking rates, particularly among women. For the entire population, we now have a very low smoking rate of 5.6 percent, the lowest in the European Union.”

Düring attributed Sweden’s success to consumer choice. “When we entered the European Union, consumers said, ‘Don’t touch our snus,'” she said, referring to a smokeless oral nicotine pouch popular in Sweden. “That’s why Sweden has had snus for a long time. This is a consumer-driven movement, not a government policy.”

“Swedish politicians don’t realize we are becoming smoke-free,” Düring added. “They are waking up after a lot of active campaigning from us, but we still face challenges and misinformation.”
Consumer advocates like Düring are at the forefront of a global campaign to end smoking and save lives. They urge authorities to adopt a science-based approach and recognize smoke-free alternatives as better substitutes to cigarettes.

These groups say smoke-free alternatives offer consumers better choices and play an important role in THR. THR aims to lessen the harm caused by cigarette smoking, the most dangerous form of tobacco use. It encourages smokers who choose not to quit smoking to switch to smoke-free nicotine products.

Scientific studies have shown that smoke-free products are at least 95 percent less harmful than traditional cigarettes. Unlike cigarettes, these products do not burn tobacco or produce smoke containing thousands of harmful chemicals.

Many countries, however, continue to restrict these products in favor of cigarettes. Asa Saligupta, director and founding member of ENDS Cigarette Smoke Thailand (ECST) and a member of Parliament’s Committee on Laws and Regulations of E-Cigarettes, highlighted the challenges in Thailand, where e-cigarettes have been banned for 10 years.

“Despite the ban, Thailand has over 1.5 million vapers,” Saligupta said. “Importing and distributing e-cigarettes is illegal, so you can’t sell them. But buying, possessing and using them are not illegal. Vaping itself isn’t illegal because there are no laws controlling it. You can even vape in no-smoking zones without penalty.”

Saligupta said ECST (ENDS Cigarette Smoking Thailand), with over 100,000 members, has been working to educate the public and advocate to government officials to reverse the ban.
Ignacio Leiva, founder and president of the Association of Vaporizer Consumers of Chile (ASOVAPE) and secretary of ARDT Iberoamerica, has played a key role in promoting THR in Chile. He organized the first pro-vaping public demonstration in Latin America.

“I started a community of e-cigarette users on Facebook to inform them about the benefits and potential drawbacks,” he said. “Users need to be aware.”
“Now we work as a network,” Leiva said. “I’m very proud of the new advocacy groups working together in Chile and across Latin America.”

Consumer groups said, however, they continue to face challenges, including the complex THR environment across countries, their exclusion from policy discussions, and the World Health Organization’s refusal to consider their views.

WATCH: TECHSABADO and ‘TODAY IS TUESDAY’ LIVESTREAM on YOUTUBE