Press Statement

Rejoinder: Reject Misleading Calls to Endorse Vapes as Tobacco Harm Reduction in Ghana's Public Health Act

22nd December, 2025

Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST Ghana), a dedicated public health advocacy organisation, expresses grave concern over the publication dated 9th December 2025 on JoyNews online, authored by Bismark Peter, titled “Advancing Ghana’s Public Health Act: Multi-Sector Wins Through Harm Reduction.”

The author, affiliated with the Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), a free-market think tank, has repeatedly advocated for Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) in Ghanaian media throughout 2025, often echoing industry-aligned narratives without disclosing potential conflicts. This pattern underscores the need for vigilance against tobacco industry interference as mandated by Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC.

In the referred article, the author advocates for amendments to Ghana’s Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851) to incorporate tobacco harm reduction strategies. He presents these as delivering benefits across public health, economic diversification, job creation, and tax revenue. This perspective, however, directly conflicts with the principles of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which Ghana is a party to. The WHO FCTC prioritizes proven measures to prevent and reduce harm from tobacco and nicotine products. As reaffirmed in WHO's 2025 Position on Tobacco Control and Harm Reduction, the tobacco industry misappropriates the concept of harm reduction to promote addictive products, with no evidence of net public health benefits from novel nicotine items.

Proponents, frequently linked to tobacco industry interests, portray these products as innovative solutions offering health and economic gains. VAST Ghana asserts that this narrative fundamentally misrepresents the reality on the ground. For a nation like Ghana that has successfully maintained a low smoking prevalence, the adoption of THR is not a step forward, but a dangerous regression that will jeopardize decades of hard-won public health gains.

The progress made in global tobacco control is undeniable, yet it has provoked a fierce response from the industry. As stated by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, in the WHO Tobacco Trend Report 2025, “Millions of people are stopping, or not taking up tobacco use thanks to tobacco control efforts by countries around the world. In response to this strong progress, the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people. Governments must act faster and stronger in implementing proven tobacco control policies.” 

“The tobacco industry is introducing an incessant chain of new products and technologies for its aim to market tobacco addiction with not just cigarettes but also e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco products among others, which all harm people’s health, and more worryingly the health of new generations, youth and adolescents” reaffirmed by Etienne Krug, WHO Director of Health Determinants, Promotion and Prevention Department. The WHO has consistently cautioned against endorsing these products as public health tools. Its latest global reports emphasize that children aged 13–15 are, on average, nine times more likely to use e-cigarettes than adults, with the industry deploying novel products to hook younger generations. The WHO explicitly does not recommend electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) as cessation aids and urges stringent regulation or bans in countries with limited oversight capacity, like many LMICs. In its 2025 positions, WHO explicitly states that all tobacco, nicotine, and related products pose risks, and industry-promoted "harm reduction" lacks evidence of population-level benefits while increasing youth uptake.

“If nicotine pouches, e-cigarettes, and HTPs were genuinely safer therapeutic options, they would undergo the stringent clinical trials required for pharmaceuticals and be distributed through medical channels. Instead, they are marketed aggressively as lifestyle consumer items, often via hidden digital platforms clandestinely targeting young people with appealing flavors and designs”. “These are not cessation aids; they are strategically engineered to perpetuate nicotine addiction and expand markets amid declining traditional cigarette sales worldwide”. Labram Musah, VAST Ghana Executive Director.

The industry’s oft-repeated mantra “people smoke for the nicotine but die from the tar”—deliberately downplays nicotine’s serious dangers. Robustscientific evidence confirms that nicotine is highly addictive, adversely impacts cardiovascular health, hinders adolescent brain development (affecting attention, learning, impulse control, and emotional regulation), and heightens risks of mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. Prenatal nicotine exposure is associated with developmental issues and elevated risks of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this aerosol is not harmless “water vapor.” It includes heavy metals (e.g., nickel, tin, lead), volatile organic compounds, and ultrafine particles that penetrate deep into the lungs, potentially causing respiratory injury and cardiovascular complications.

The argument that novel nicotine products will generate "multi-sector wins" through increased tax revenue and foreign investment fails to account for the true economic burden of tobacco-related disease. The economic cost of tobacco use in Ghana is already substantial, estimated at approximately 1.67 billion Ghana cedis (Tobacco Atlas, 2025). This figure represents direct healthcare expenditures and indirect costs from lost productivity due to premature death and illness.

Introducing new, highly addictive products into the market will inevitably increase the pool of nicotine users, thereby guaranteeing a future surge in healthcare costs. Furthermore, with over 6,000 Ghanaians dying annually from tobacco-related illnesses (WHO and recent estimates, 2021–2025), the focus must remain on proven, cost-effective measures like taxation and cessation, not on commercial strategies that sustain addiction.

The primary public health threat posed by e-cigarettes in LMICs is not their use as a cessation tool for adult smokers, but their effectiveness as a youth initiation device. In environments with limited regulatory enforcement and aggressive digital marketing, these products are successfully recruiting a new generation of nicotine users.

Data from the 2017 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) for Ghana provided an early warning: 4.9-5.8% of Junior High School students reported current e-cigarette use, a rate that was already higher than the 3.0% who smoked conventional cigarettes at the. This trend confirms that the industry's focus is on harm redirection—shifting the market from aging smokers to young, non-smoking adolescents

A youth advocate with VAST Ghana, Winston Deladem Gamor “The real strength of the Ghanaian youth is not in following a trend, but in standing up for each other. Vaping is a calculated trap that profits from our addiction. Choosing not to vape is not a sign of weakness; it is an act of self-respect and a commitment to personal health and future of our beloved nation”. 

Experiences from other countries reinforce this pattern. Thailand's experience provides crucial insights. Dr. Prakit Vathesatogkit, Executive Secretary of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Thailand, reports that “among Thailand's approximately one million adult vapers, 30% never smoked before taking up vaping. Among younger people, this pattern intensifies: 50% of youth vapers were non-smokers who initiated nicotine addiction through vaping. Additionally, vapers typically engage in dual use—they vape and continue smoking traditional cigarettes, multiplying rather than reducing health risks”. 

Field observations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Burkina Faso reveal alarming trends: children order devices through WhatsApp groups, exchange information about refills, and use flavoured, colourful vapes that leave no odour or visible trace—products specifically designed to evade parental detection.

Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), articulates the African public health position clearly: “Africa does not need harm reduction products; we need strong tobacco laws. When the science is not clear, vapes should be avoided.”

In Ghana, the Food and Drugs Authority enforce a complete ban on the sale, advertisement and recreational use of non-tobacco products, classifying them as illegal under the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851), to protect public health.

If the tobacco industry and its allies genuinely cared about saving lives, they would push for taxation increases, plain packaging, smoke free laws, tobacco cessation programs and prohibit minors from accessing tobacco and smoking, not lobby for the deregulation of addictive products and imposition of taxes on already illicit products. The attempt to draw inspiration from Sweden or the United Kingdom is not only contextually misplaced but ethically problematic. Sweden’s claimed success with snus and electronic cigarettes occurred in a vastly different regulatory environment, supported by robust surveillance systems, comprehensive cessation support and a well-informed public, none of which exist in Ghana.

Critically, Ghana’s national tobacco cessation guidelines provide a clear, evidence-based framework for addressing nicotine dependence. These guidelines detail a range of cessation support options, from brief clinical interventions to more comprehensive pharmacological treatments. Ghana must not become a testing ground for failed strategies imported from different socio-economic and healthcare contexts. 

Ghana must reject these tactics and strengthen its commitment to WHO FCTC provisions, and the full implementation of the WHO MPOWER package: monitoring tobacco use, protecting people from smoke, offering help to quit, warning about the dangers, enforcing advertising bans, and raising taxes. A measure that ensures that no loopholes are created for the industry to exploit. 

As stated unequivocally by Labram Musah, “We must shield our comprehensive tobacco control regulations from all forms of tobacco industry interference and manipulation. Our responsibility is to ensure their strict, unwavering, and full implementation without compromise. The future of Ghana’s health cannot be traded for the illusion of innovation or the industry's profit margins.”

The evidence is clear. 'Harm reduction' creates new addicts rather than helping current smokers quit. E-cigarettes recruit youth who would never have smoked traditional cigarettes. Front groups amplifying industry positions cannot be treated as independent policy voices. Ghana's success came from rigorous FCTC implementation, not from accommodating industry alternatives.

We call on Parliament, the Ministry of Health, the FDA, and all regulatory authorities to reject any amendments to normalize nicotine consumption outside of a strict medical context. We must reject the false promise of "harm reduction" and protect our children, youth, our economy, and our public health future from the vested interests of the tobacco industry.

Issued by:

Labram M. Musah  

Executive Director, Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST Ghana)  

National Coordinator, Ghana NCD Alliance  

Contact: 0243211854  

Email: [email protected]