GENEVA: An alliance consisted of tobacco harm reduction advocacy organizations has asked health regulators to bring up the rights of smokers who want to switch to safer alternatives during the Ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP9) of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) in November 2020 in New York, USA.

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (Caphra) also asked regulators to question the restrictive policy of WHO that tolerates the use of combustible cigarettes, while discouraging the use of 95 percent less harmful smoke-free Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).