Smoking kills. Vaping helps people quit. So why is the World Health Organization waging war on safer nicotine instead of the fire and tar that actually do the damage?
This November, behind closed doors in Geneva, the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will debate measures that target vaping, e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, flavours and packaging while the real killer, combustible tobacco, gets a free pass. It’s the wrong target, the wrong science, and the wrong side of history.
At RIOT, we were built to change the status quo of smoking cessation. We stand with the millions who’ve used tobacco harm reduction (THR) to quit smoking. And we’re not staying quiet while “public health” tries to rewrite the rules to make nicotine, not tobacco, the real villain.
A Dangerous Pivot From Smoke-Free to Nicotine-Free
The WHO’s rhetoric has shifted. It’s not “end smoking”; it’s “end nicotine.” That pivot sounds neat in a press release, but it’s a public-health own goal. Nicotine isn’t what causes cancer, COPD or heart disease; smoke does. The big harms come from combustion: tar, carbon monoxide, thousands of toxic byproducts. Safer nicotine products like vapes, e-cigs, closed pod systems, refillable e-liquids and nicotine pouches don't burn. That’s the point.
"The WHO’s rhetoric has shifted. It’s not “end smoking”; it’s “end nicotine.”
Yet the WHO agenda keeps drifting towards prohibition by stealth: flavour bans, plain packs for vaping, advertising blackouts, punitive vaping taxes, and “guidance” that treats a zero combustion vapour product like a Marlboro. That is not evidence-based regulation. That’s ideology with a badge.
Vaping Works for Adults Who Smoke
You don’t need a Geneva badge to read the room. Across the UK and beyond, adult smokers are switching to vaping and quitting smoking. Every e-liquid bottle that replaces a pack of cigarettes is a win for public health. Retailers see it daily. Ex-smokers feel it hourly. Cravings drop. Coughs fade. Fitness returns. Quit attempts stick.
Does youth use need smart guardrails? Yes. Age checks, retailer licensing, smart enforcement, marketing rules that keep kids out, is all something we support. But strangling adult access to effective smoking cessation tools because regulators refuse to differentiate risk is reckless. Risk-proportionate regulation is the grown-up approach: the more harmful the product, the stricter the rules; the less harmful, the more enabling the policy. Simple.
The Flavour Fight
Here’s what the WHO won’t say out loud: Flavours help adult smokers switch. Not candy-land. Not kid-bait. Adult-palate flavours that make smoke taste obsolete. Remove flavours and you hand combustible cigarettes their market back on a silver platter. That isn’t protecting public health; it’s protecting the cigarette status quo.
We need licensing for vape retailers, heavy fines for rogue sellers, and proper enforcement against illicit trade, not blanket flavour bans that push adults back to smoking or into the black market.
Regulate Risk, Not Nicotine
Public health is supposed to be a discipline, not a panic button. Good policy:
- Differentiates products by risk
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Keeps kids out with real enforcement and ID tech.
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Supports adult switching with accessible, affordable, regulated products.
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Kills the black market with licensing, traceability and swift penalties.
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Communicates honestly about relative risk so smokers aren’t misled.
Bad policy does the opposite: collapses categories, shouts “nicotine” like it’s a curse word, and writes rules that punish the tools that reduce smoking.
"If you have to shut the public out to defend your position, you may not be defending public health."
Closed Doors, Closed Minds
COP meetings are held behind closed doors. Consumers, the very people whose lives are affected, are locked out. So are many harm-reduction experts, clinicians, and retailers who see real-world quitting every day. Instead of an open, evidence-based process, we get pre-cooked talking points and a permanent state of emergency around vaping that simply isn’t reflected in the science on e-cigarettes versus smoking.
If you have to shut the public out to defend your position, you may not be defending public health.
What the WHO Should Do (But Won’t)
Let’s save them the consultancy fee:
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Put tobacco back at the centre. Target cigarettes with the toughest rules; adopt risk-based policy for vapes and pouches.
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Back flavours for adults, enforce age-gating for youth. Licensing, compliance checks, stings—use them.
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Tax by harm, not hysteria. High tobacco taxes; proportionate vaping taxes that don’t deter quitting.
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Fund cessation that includes THR. Stop pretending NRT is the only option. E-cigarettes and vape starter kits belong in the toolkit.
- Open the doors. Let consumers, retailers, clinicians, and harm-reduction scientists into the conversation. Sunlight beats spin.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
Every time the WHO muddies the water, claiming or implying that vaping is as harmful as smoking, or that nicotine equals tobacco, another smoker shrugs and sticks with cigarettes. That’s the real-world impact of misinformation: fewer quit attempts, more relapses, and a win for the only product that actually kills half its long-term users.
The stakes aren’t theoretical. They’re measured in hospital wards, mortality stats, and families who’d like their loved ones around longer. Public health is about outcomes. If your policy makes fewer smokers switch, your policy is bad. No matter how righteous it sounds.
RIOT’s Line in the Sand
We’re not neutral. We’re not polite about it either.
- We support vaping and e-cigarettes as effective quit-smoking tools for adult smokers.
- We oppose flavour bans and vaping prohibition by stealth.
- We support licensing, age verification, and tough action on illicit vapes.
- We demand risk-proportionate regulation and truthful communication on relative risk.
- We stand with consumers, retailers, and clinicians who see tobacco harm reduction working, every day.
The stakes aren’t theoretical. They’re measured in hospital wards, mortality stats, and families who’d like their loved ones around longer.
Call It What It Is, A War on Harm Reduction
When the WHO treats nicotine like contraband and vaping like a PR problem, it’s not fighting tobacco, it’s fighting progress. You cannot “ban” human behaviour; you can only shift it. THR shifts it away from the smoke that kills towards the products that don’t burn. That is what success looks like.
History won’t remember the committees. It will remember whether we chose ideology or impact. Whether we protected adults’ right to quit or protected cigarette sales with performative bans. Whether we told the truth about relative risk or hid behind slogans.
Join the Side That Saves Lives
If you’re a smoker: try a vape. Pick a flavour that makes cigarettes taste like yesterday’s habit. If you’re a retailer: keep it 18+, keep it compliant, keep helping adults switch. If you’re in public health: be brave enough to back what works. And if you’re the WHO: stop policing nicotine and start defeating tobacco smoking.
