GSTHR Speaks About Its Study
GSTHR speaks about its new survey that reveals scale of consumer advocacy for safer nicotine products - and need for recognised role in global policymaking
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by Dave Cross
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- Most consumer advocacy organisations run by volunteers who successfully quit smoking using safer nicotine products
- All report significant activity and success despite lack of financial and human resources
- None report receiving tobacco or pharma industry funds – and total global consumer advocacy budget dwarfed by millions available to those advocating against tobacco harm reduction
The landmark global survey investigating the role and activities of consumer organisations advocating for access to safer nicotine products (SNP) and tobacco harm reduction has been released.
The new study was carried out by the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction, a project of UK public health agency, Knowledge•Action•Change. The first of its kind, the research was published in Wiley’s open access journal, Public Health Challenges.
It reveals that there are 54 active consumer advocacy groups working around the world to raise awareness about, and promote the availability of, and access to, SNP, which include nicotine vaping products (e-cigarettes), Swedish-style snus, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products.
Tobacco harm reduction is a potentially life-saving intervention for millions of people across the world. To those who currently use high-risk tobacco products, like cigarettes and some oral tobaccos, it offers the chance to switch to a range of SNP that pose fewer risks to their health.
Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction estimates show that these harm reduction options are now being used by an estimated 112 million people worldwide. Many SNP consumers may be unaware of the political, policy, and regulatory issues surrounding these products, despite bans or restrictions in many countries, but the last 15 years has seen the emergence of small grassroots advocacy organizations, set up and run by nicotine consumers, with most (36) only being established since 2016.
The research, based on a detailed survey, found that most organisations (42) were operated entirely by volunteers, most of whom had successfully quit smoking with the help of SNP.
Only seven of the groups had any contracted or paid staff (13 people globally) and for the last full year, the total funding for all organisations surveyed amounted to just US$309,810. This is in stark contrast to the millions of dollars spent on campaigns by actors such as Bloomberg Philanthropies seeking to limit access to SNP such as nicotine vaping products. The paper also notes that none of the consumer advocacy organisations reported receiving funding from tobacco or pharmaceutical companies.
Many of these organisations were members of four regional umbrella organisations covering Latin America (ARDT Iberoamerica), Africa (CASA), Europe (ETHRA), and Asia-Pacific (CAPHRA).
But even with the support of these larger bodies, this research found that individual consumer advocacy organisations are potentially fragile, concluding that groups must now transition from an initial start-up phase to a position where they are better resourced.
Yet, despite the precariousness of their existence, all of the organisations were able to report significant activity and successes in the promotion of tobacco harm reduction as a public health strategy, through information dissemination, media engagement and contributions to policy development.
The paper’s lead author was Tomasz Jerzyński, Data Scientist for the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction project. He said: “This survey offered a unique opportunity to map these advocacy organisations for the first time and provide valuable insight into how they are operating all over the world. The sustainability of these organisations is one of the main concerns that has come out of the data. All of these groups face challenges due to their small numbers of core workers and their dependence on volunteers.”
Speaking about the survey, another of its authors, Professor Gerry Stimson, Director of K•A•C and Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London, said: “This paper starkly demonstrates the major imbalance in resources available to consumer organisations advocating for access to safer nicotine products and those opposed to tobacco harm reduction, unfairly skewing the debate.
“It also highlights why consumer groups must be recognised as legitimate stakeholders in the policy sphere. These organisations have been set up, and are run by, people who have chosen to improve their own health by switching to SNP – people who have significant expertise to offer, and whose lives are directly affected by policymaking in this area.
“The views of safer nicotine product consumers must therefore be central to the development, crafting, and implementation of health policies going forwards – including at the next Framework Convention on Tobacco Control COP meeting this November, in Panama.”
References:
- Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction – https://gsthr.org/
- Knowledge•Action•Change – https://kachange.eu/
- Global survey of consumer organisations advocating for safer nicotine products – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/puh2.58
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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