Overview
WHO will be holding a technical consultation and capacity building to assist countries who need technical support as they advance their work on tobacco product testing and disclosure. This technical consultation on tobacco product testing and disclosure will be held on 27-29 April 2016 in New Delhi, India and will be hosted by the Directorate General of Health Services (Dte GHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) of the Government of India.
This consultation convenes regulators and experts to discuss the implementation and operationalization of tobacco product testing and disclosure, which would be relevant even to those countries that do not possess sufficient resources to establish laboratories for testing and verification.
This is a key opportunity for national regulatory agencies to exchange local insights and global perspectives on how to improve their regulatory and technical capacity for product testing with the goal of establishing effective laws and regulations on disclosure.
Why hold a technical consultation on tobacco product testing and disclosure at this time?
Testing and disclosure form a necessary basis for all other tobacco product regulation. Without reliable and comprehensive information on products including product contents and emissions, it is not possible to evaluate industry compliance, to make determinations about product health risks, or to assess regulatory outcomes. Rules for disclosure go hand in hand with testing standards. Testing standards support reliability of data while rules for disclosure determine the availability of data both to regulators and to the public.
WHO is often approached by countries for assistance on this matter. Many countries are interested in implementing requirements under the Articles 9 and 10 of the WHO FCTC, and several countries expressed a need for technical guidance during the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health 2015. Therefore, WHO hopes that this technical consultation offer countries an opportunity to generate and share knowledge to strengthen country capacity to mandate testing and encourage the enactment of disclosure requirements.
What are the specific goals of the technical consultation?
- Inform regulators about existing WHO efforts - to update regulators and tobacco control focal points about existing WHO tools and guidance, and to support their efforts to improve their testing and disclosure requirements.
- Share ideas and experiences - to provide an opportunity for face-to-face interaction and networking which will facilitate the exchange of ideas, experiences and lessons learned on ways and means to implement effective testing and disclosure measures.
- Forge a community of practice - to establish a WHO-led global community of practice of tobacco product regulatory agencies and tobacco control focal points.
Expected outcomes:
- A better understanding of the challenges and benefits of implementing effective testing and disclosure mechanisms.
- Identification of initial next steps for improving testing and disclosure mechanisms.
- Increased cooperation and collaboration among various tobacco regulatory agencies/tobacco control focal points.
What is the general program of activities for the technical consultation?
For the first two days of the consultation, regulators and experts shall convene to discuss the implementation and operationalization of testing and disclosure requirements. These sessions aim to provide insight and guidance to a broad group of participants, including those who have yet to acquire the sufficient resources to create and maintain testing facilities.
The third day will be a special separate session on building and strengthening capacity for testing for verification. This session will cater especially to participants who have the necessary resources, and the desire to establish laboratories for verification testing.
Why should regulators require the testing of tobacco products and the disclosure of the test results to regulators?
Both testing of tobacco products and disclosure of test results are necessary foundations for effective product regulation. By implementing effective testing and disclosure regulations, regulators can gain sufficient information to take action and to inform the public about the harmful effects of tobacco use.
Testing requirements ensure that regulators are provided with reliable and comprehensive information on contents, emissions, designs, and market trends of all tobacco products and assessment of tobacco industry claims. This would enable governments or regulators to make informed determinations about product health risks or to evaluate the public health impact of regulations. Testing requirements also help ensure data on contents and emissions are generated in a way that allow their comparability.
The main objective of disclosure rules is to inform the public about the harms of using certain products. Thus, in various industries such as food and cosmetics, rules for disclosure are closely connected with testing standards. Rules for disclosure help regulatory agencies gain access to relevant information about tobacco products in a timely manner.
What does tobacco product testing entail?
Testing in the context of tobacco product regulation is a two-step process. The first step involves comprehensive brand/sub-brand testing. This is usually performed in a laboratory, using specified analytical methods. Such testing can be required on the part of tobacco companies, or be performed by governmental laboratories.
The second step involves verification of the data collected. This can be achieved through confirmatory testing, conducted by an independent laboratory. Alternatively, confidence in the data could be built upfront by requiring that:
- the laboratory performing the testing be accredited by an official standards body pursuant to ISO standard 17025,
- general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories are complied with, and
- the analytical methods, such as the TobLabNet testing methods, be part of the laboratory’s scope of accreditation.
How can I receive more information about this consultation?
For any queries about this consultation, please contact WHO by sending an email to regulatorsforum@who.int