The World Health Organisation (WHO) has lost significant credibility in the last decade. Lethargic COVID-19 and Ebola virus responses, the horrific #AidToo controversy, and corrupt and opaque governance have all hammered the UN agencies' reputation.

However, their work at the COP11 FCTC highlights the sheer hollowness that exists within the organisation when it comes to dealing with the problem of smoking.

Orchid & Dirty Ashtray Awards

The FCTC is engaged in serious business. After all, tobacco is still the leading global cause of preventable death, accounting for more than 8 million deaths each year worldwide. In an everyday world, the metrics for successful tobacco control policy would be the swift reduction of these avoidable fatalities.

However, the WHO has its own set of criteria for judging the impact of its tobacco control efforts. Nowhere is that more evident than in this year’s respective Orchid and Dirty Ashtray Awards.

The Orchid Award goes to Mexico

It doesn’t get more romantic than a bouquet of orchids. But the WHO’s amorous intentions towards Mexico are more of the toxic variety. The Orchid Award comes because Mexico has delivered one of the “most powerful and uncompromising statements against the tobacco industry at COP11”.

In other words, Mexico is prepared to talk tough and toe the WHO line. But where has that got the North American country? Well, for one, its smoking rate has grown since 2019, with prevalence going from 13.9% to 14.1%. This modest increase masks some large swings that saw the smoking rate at over 19% in 2021, with a nearly 30% rate for males.

Let’s be clear, Mexico is a cautionary tale for what happens when you ban vapes and pouches: you get stagnant or rising smoking rates.

The Dirty Ashtray Award goes to New Zealand

New Zealand, just like Sweden, is an inconvenient truth for the WHO. They’ve achieved one of the most dramatic declines in smoking rates among developed nations over the past decade, largely due to the widespread adoption of safer nicotine alternatives like vaping.

The WHO chides the island for its “alarming vaping rate amongst young people”, blissfully unaware of how decisive these harm reduction tools are in driving smoking from around 15% in 2011 to nearer 6% today.

The WHO’s real issue with New Zealand reversing policy last year is that they sought to balance public health with personal choice and economic pragmatism. Furthermore, the high vaping rates are a function of formerly high smoking rates.

Fretting about the country’s fall in the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index Drop and how their smoking success story is being used to push “bad global policy” reveals the thinness of the WHO’s approach to reducing death from combustible tobacco.

Judging by the numbers, it seems like the government and industry can work together to deliver better products that help former smokers or would-be smokers live healthier lives. And yes, WHO, if a country is cutting smokers at really fast rates, anyone except for you would be interested in hearing about the policies that helped them get there.

Final thoughts

Measuring the success of tobacco control policies by the MPOWER yardstick is nuts. Instead of tracking how impactful their policies are, the WHO is more concerned with how faithfully its whacky anti-tobacco industry laws are implemented. It’s a real mask-off moment to see the WHO lauding a country (Mexico) where smoking has risen in recent years, and casting shade on one (New Zealand) that is on the verge of being smoke-free.

The WHO is, and has been for a long time, completely beyond parody.