Consumers sound alarm as COP11 threatens harm reduction

The World Health Organisation’s upcoming COP11 meeting in Geneva is sparking fierce debate, as activists from the World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA) projected a clear message onto the venue: consumers must be recognised, not sidelined.

Michael Landl, WVA director, called the conference an echo chamber stuck in outdated, anti-science thinking that fails smokers.

“Harm reduction isn’t a marketing ploy, it’s a public health necessity supported by hard data,” he said. “Consumers’ lives matter more than ideology or the views of wealthy WHO donors like Michael Bloomberg. It’s time consumers got a real seat at the table.”

Delegates will soon decide policies that affect millions of smokers, yet those affected remain excluded. The WHO aims to enact bans on flavoured vaping, nicotine limits, heavy taxation, and further restrictions. WVA said these policies ignore evidence clearly showing vaping and nicotine pouches are far less harmful than cigarettes and effective quit aids.

Earlier this month, a leaked European Commission document has sparked uproar among harm reduction advocates and industry groups, after revealing plans to support potential bans on vapes and nicotine pouches at the upcoming COP11 meeting.

Liza Katsiashvili, director of operations of the WVA, warned that COP11 could become the moment tobacco control chose prohibition over progress: “Banning flavours won’t save lives; it sends smokers back to cigarettes. High taxes and bans only fuel black markets. The lessons from failed policies are clear. Delegates have a choice: listen to the facts or repeat costly mistakes.”

The WVA’s Voices Unheard – Consumers Matter campaign demands that governments change this closed process now, prioritising evidence and people over ideology as the tobacco control debate intensifies.

The eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will take place in Geneva from November 17 to 22.