Policy Studies Harm Reduction

Exploring the Differences in Tobacco Policy Between the United Kingdom and Thailand

by Alec Ulasevich AND Chelsea Boyd

Oct 5, 2020

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Authors

Alec Ulasevich

Former Resident Senior Fellow, Harm Reduction

Chelsea Boyd

Resident Research Fellow, Harm Reduction

Key Points

Tobacco control efforts stalled in Thailand, seeing little decrease in the number of smokers of combustible cigarettes for a number of years, whereas UK have seen a decline in the number of cigarette smokers.

Unlike UK which acknowledges the role of e-cigarettes in overall tobacco control strategies and affirms the health benefits of smokers switching to e-cigarettes, Thailand reaffirmed its ban on vapes.

Adopting the UK model may help Thailand to reduce their cigarette smoking rates leading to improvements in overall population health.

Press Release

Thailand Should Follow the United Kingdom’s Lead: Examining Tobacco Policy Abroad

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Introduction

Currently, about 1.3 billion people globally use tobacco products, leading to 8 million deaths per year. The burden of tobacco-related death and illness makes tobacco regulation a priority for policy makers and public health organizations. Globally, the distribution of tobacco users skews towards low- and middle-income countries, with 80 percent of tobacco users living in one of these regions. Just as the prevalence of tobacco use by country is not uniform, neither are tobacco regulations.

Tobacco regulation, or tobacco control, refers to a group of policies that rule over tobacco manufacturers, distributors, sellers and individuals. Each country or region has its own set of policies that govern consumer access to tobacco products, and these policies have a direct impact on tobacco use profiles. In general, more onerous regulatory frameworks are associated with lower levels of tobacco use among a country’s population. However, not all regulatory frameworks are created equal, and even the countries most praised for their tobacco regulations do not always see large reductions in tobacco use among their populations.

For example, The United Kingdom and Thailand are both praised for their regulation of tobacco. Both countries are parties to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), an international treaty that signals a country’s commitment to regulatory strategies that decrease demand for tobacco products and promote the highest standards of health for their populations. However, the two countries have taken very different approaches to tobacco control, especially regarding novel tobacco products such as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), which include e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products.

Read the full study here.