- Two former WHO directors say the UK must keep its focus on smoking as new tobacco and vape laws take effect.
- The Lancet comment welcomes the Act’s distinction between combustible tobacco and lower-risk nicotine products.
- The authors warn that overly restrictive vape rules could slow adult switching or push demand into illicit markets.
- They say youth protections axre needed, but adult smokers must still have realistic routes away from cigarettes.
Two former World Health Organisation (WHO) directors have warned the UK not to weaken the role of vaping and other smoke-free nicotine products as it implements new tobacco laws.
Professors Ruth Bonita and Robert Beaglehole, both from the University of Auckland, made the warning in a new Lancet comment, Beyond a smoke-free generation: ending smoking within a generation.
Bonita was formerly director of non-communicable disease surveillance at WHO, while Beaglehole was director of the WHO Department of Chronic Disease and Health Promotion.
Warning over future vape rules
Their intervention comes after the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 received Royal Assent. The Act creates the UK’s smoke-free generation policy by prohibiting tobacco sales to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, while also giving ministers powers over the supply, display, promotion and regulation of vapes and other products.
Bonita and Beaglehole said the UK’s approach was notable for “keeping the primary focus on smoking and distinguishing combustible tobacco from lower-risk nicotine products.”
But they warned that future regulations must avoid discouraging adults who smoke from switching to lower-risk alternatives.
They wrote that preventing youth smoking is important, but said smoke-free generation laws mainly prevent initiation in future cohorts. Without stronger action to reduce smoking among adults, they said, the effects on disease, deaths and health-system pressure will be delayed.
The authors said: “People smoke for nicotine but die from the smoke.”
Harm reduction should not be sidelined
They argued that tobacco harm reduction should be treated as part of tobacco control, alongside demand reduction and supply reduction. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control includes harm reduction in its definition of tobacco control, but Bonita and Beaglehole said it remains the least developed part of global policy.
The comment said smoke-free nicotine products are now used by millions of people worldwide, and that evidence on their lower risk compared with smoking, and their role in helping adults switch, has strengthened over the past decade.
It also warned against policies that make lower-risk alternatives too difficult to access. The authors said prohibition, whether direct or indirect, risks leaving cigarettes as the main legal nicotine product or “shifting demand into illicit markets.”
Youth protection and adult switching
At the same time, they did not call for an unregulated vape market. The paper said concerns about youth vaping, misleading advertising, poor product quality and tobacco industry influence are legitimate.
The authors pointed to New Zealand as an example of both opportunity and risk. They said adult daily smoking declined gradually under conventional tobacco control, but that the rate of decline increased around four-fold in the strongest years after vapes became widely available.
However, they also said uncontrolled marketing and weak product rules contributed to youth vaping before New Zealand tightened regulation in 2020.
Their preferred approach is tighter, proportionate regulation. They called for “risk-proportionate regulation,” clearer communication about relative risk, and stronger market surveillance.
They also said safeguards should protect young people and non-users, prevent misleading marketing, protect policy from tobacco industry interference and support the wider goal of ending smoking among those at greatest risk.
The comment said more than seven million people die from tobacco use each year, mostly from smoking, and more than 80 per cent of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.
Bonita and Beaglehole said ending smoking within a generation will require action for adults as well as young people.
“Prevention of youth smoking remains essential but must not divert attention away from the urgent task of reducing harm among people already exposed to combustible tobacco,” they wrote.
The authors declared no competing interests.
