POLICY BRIEF article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Addictions
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1687986
A Science-Based Product Regulation: The Time Has Come to Reduce Toxic Emissions to Reduce Harm
Provisionally accepted
- 1Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- 2Universidade do Vale do Itajai, Itajaí, Brazil
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Tobacco control has focused on reducing use, with little emphasis on regulating product toxicity. Articles 9 and 10 of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) offer a mechanism to reduce harm by limiting toxic emissions, but implementation has stalled. A science-based regulatory framework is needed to set emission thresholds for toxicants. Inspiration can be found from other regulated sectors, and the initial focus should be on nine priority toxicants strongly linked to tobacco-related disease. An adaptive, evidence-based approach can complement existing strategies and accelerate harm reduction for more than 1 billion people who still smoke. The 11th FCTC Conference of the Parties in 2025 presents an opportunity to revisit the development of a toxicity reduction strategy.
Keywords: tobacco1, tobacco product2, toxicity3, regulation4, FCTC5
Received: 22 Aug 2025; Accepted: 25 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kunze, Santin and Kunze. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ursula Kunze, ursula.kunze@meduniwien.ac.at
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