Flaw in WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Editor—The final text of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as agreed at the World Health Assembly in May 2003 has the following in Article 1 under “The use of terms”: “Tobacco products' means products entirely or partly made of the leaf of tobacco as raw material to be used for smoking, sucking, chewing or snuffing.”¹

As such it covers the question raised by Sehmi in his letter,² which suggests the need for an amendment to the convention. The research on snus seems to point to a reduced risk, and thus raises a scientific rather than a cosmetic question. In several countries of the Pacific, tobacco from cigarettes is widely used, along with betel quid. This is also another form of chewing; although cosmetic appeal is certainly absent, its harm seems not to be as damaging as inhaled tobacco smoke.