Tobacco Product Regulation
Tobacco is one of the few openly
available commercial products that are virtually unregulated.
At the same time, it is the only legally available product
that kills up to one half of its regular users when consumed
as recommended by its manufacturer. In light of this, tobacco
product regulation, which includes regulating the contents
and emissions of tobacco products via testing, mandating
the disclosure of the test results, and regulating the packaging
and labelling of tobacco products, is one of the key pillars
of any comprehensive tobacco control programme. The regulation
of tobacco products is encompassed within a set of provisions
in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO
FCTC) that are targeted at the regulation of the manufacture
and distribution of tobacco products:
Article 9: Regulation
of the contents of tobacco products
Article 10: Regulation of tobacco product disclosures
Article 11: Packaging and labelling of tobacco products
These three articles
are the result of the consensus view that tobacco product
regulation would serve public health goals by providing a
meaningful regulatory oversight of tobacco products to consumers.
Additionally, these provisions imply the need for an objective,
science-based approach to the implementation of the articles
of the Framework Convention.
To address the issue
of product regulation, the Director-General established the
WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg) in
2003. The group, which includes leading scientists in the
field, carries out research and drafts recommendations for
WHO's Member States on the issue of establishing regulatory
frameworks for the design and manufacture of tobacco products.
In addition, the WHO Tobacco Laboratory Network (TobLabNet)
was established in line with the aims and objectives of the
WHO FCTC tobacco product regulation provisions and following
the recommendations TobReg. Its objectives are primarily to
establish global tobacco testing and research capacity to
test tobacco products for regulatory compliance, to research
and develop harmonized standards for contents and emissions
testing, to share tobacco research and testing standards and
results, to inform risk assessment activities related to the
use of tobacco products, and to develop harmonized reporting
of such results so that data can be transformed into meaningful
trend information that can be compared across countries and
over time. Collectively, WHO's coordinated approach to product
regulation aims to address the most effective and evidence-based
means in order to fill regulatory gaps in tobacco control,
and to establish global tobacco testing and research capacity
to test tobacco products for regulatory compliance.
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