The real enemy in the fight against smoking isn’t nicotine—it’s smoke. Yet the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to conflate the two, undermining global tobacco control efforts by targeting nicotine rather than the act of burning tobacco. This misguided approach risks keeping more people smoking, rather than helping them move toward better alternatives.
Nicotine, while addictive, is not what causes cancer or lung disease, it is the combustion of tobacco that creates toxic chemicals. Better alternatives like e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco products eliminate that risk, but the WHO’s rigid stance against these products has stifled innovation and ignored decades of harm reduction science. Instead of encouraging smokers to switch, the WHO has dug in its heels—pushing bans over better choices.
This hardline ideology has stalled meaningful progress. Countries that embrace harm reduction, like the UK, are seeing smoking rates decline. Meanwhile, the WHO continues to push a one-size-fits-all ban on nicotine, ignoring local realities, scientific consensus, and the success stories of evidence-based regulation. Its war on nicotine is not saving lives—it’s prolonging smoking.
If global health bodies like the WHO are truly committed to reducing smoking-related deaths, they need to reframe the conversation around nicotine. The real issue isn’t nicotine itself but how it’s delivered. Alternatives like nicotine pouches, lozenges, and heated tobacco products offer a realistic path away from combustion, giving people the opportunity to switch to better options and make better decisions for their health — without being forced into an all-or-nothing approach.
