Briefing Papers


The right to health and the right to tobacco harm reduction

Tobacco harm reduction is not only a potentially life-saving public health intervention for the world’s 1.1 billion smokers, it's also supported by international human rights law. Here we make the case for promoting tobacco harm reduction as a health rights issue.

English 2131 Web page
English 1400 PDF Document
Arabic 1461 PDF Document
Chinese (Mandarin) 1605 PDF Document
French 1620 PDF Document
German 1508 PDF Document
Indonesian 1520 PDF Document
Japanese 1368 PDF Document
Polish 1410 PDF Document
Portuguese 1463 PDF Document
Russian 1382 PDF Document
Spanish 1606 PDF Document
Swahili 1477 PDF Document

What is Tobacco Harm Reduction?

Tobacco harm reduction is a potentially life-saving intervention for millions of people across the world who use high-risk tobacco products, offering them the chance to switch to a range of safer nicotine products. Here, we provide a detailed introduction to the principles, history and evidence for this vital public health strategy.

English 4663 Web page
English 2219 PDF Document
Arabic 2469 PDF Document
Chinese (Mandarin) 3791 PDF Document
French 2282 PDF Document
German 2327 PDF Document
Hindi 2080 PDF Document
Indonesian 2361 PDF Document
Japanese 2139 PDF Document
Polish 1994 PDF Document
Portuguese 2153 PDF Document
Russian 2282 PDF Document
Spanish 2669 PDF Document
Swahili 3207 PDF Document

82 million vapers worldwide in 2021: the GSTHR estimate

The popularity of nicotine vaping products continues to grow around the world as smokers choose to make the switch to safer alternatives and our latest research estimates the global number of vapers increased by 20% between 2020 and 2021.

English 3636 Web page
English 1678 PDF Document

Fighting the Last War: the WHO and International Tobacco Control

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control isn't working. Here we use the key messages from the latest Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report, Fighting the Last War, to argue why tobacco harm reduction must be adopted urgently by the WHO.

English 655 Web page
English 906 PDF Document

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference of the Parties (COP): an explainer (2021)

With the Ninth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) taking place from 8 - 13 November 2021, here's our guide to explain how the meeting works.

English 605 Web page

The UK and tobacco: successful elements of a harm reduction strategy and the chance to influence the international response to smoking

The UK is a world leader in tobacco harm reduction (THR), but it can still do more. Here, we argue COP9 presents the UK with the perfect opportunity to both display its THR credentials on the global stage and to champion the benefits of safer nicotine products.

English 786 Web page
English 1120 PDF Document