Regulating nicotine and tobacco products
Although tobacco use is a major public health problem, tobacco products are one of the few openly available commercial products that are virtually unregulated in some countries. They are also the only legally available products that kill up to half of its regular users when consumed as recommended by manufacturers of these products.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) includes measures to regulate the contents of tobacco products and their disclosures. To support countries to implement these measures, WHO provides guidance on regulating tobacco products to reduce their demand and contribute to wider tobacco control objectives, thereby saving lives.
In recent times, regulation of products has been extended to cover newer products, such as e-cigarettes and through its networks, the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg) and the WHO Tobacco Laboratory Network (TobLabNet), WHO provides technical assistance to countries to regulate these and tobacco products.
