In the second episode of our Easter Europe and Central Asia special Giorgi Mzhavanadze highlights divergent attitudes towards safer products across Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Chapters:
0:00 - How have attitudes to safer products changed in the region? 2:36 - How are safer products regulated? 4:19 - Diverging approaches to safer nicotine products 6:44 - Consumers remain uncertain about safer products 9:31 - Misinformation fuels distrust in safer products 12:26 - Where is the misinformation coming from?Transcription:
00:23
Joanna Junak: Let's stay on the safer nicotine products for a moment. Which countries in the region were the first to regulate them?
00:32
Giorgi Mzhavanadze: Azerbaijan and Georgia were the first to regulate S&P in the region, extending existing tobacco control laws, covering sales, advertising, use restriction to nicotine vaping products and heated tobacco products. And this happened in 2017 and 2018. Belarus and Moldova followed suit in 2019, with Armenia and Kazakhstan enacting similar laws in 2020. Then Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan followed and adopted amendments in 21 and 22 respectively. And Ukraine was one of the latest countries who started regulating e-cigarettes and HDP when they introduced provisions in their tobacco control law in July 2023. They also in that year banned flavored electronic cigarettes. Also Uzbekistan broadened its legislation to cover safer nicotine products in August 2023, while Turkmenistan, for example, enforces a complete ban on electronic cigarettes. More recently, Tajikistan also banned the import, export and sale of disposable e-cigarettes, while Kazakhstan recently in 2024 banned electronic cigarettes, their use, sale and production. Also, regrettably, Kyrgyzstan followed this wave of banning electronic cigarettes and disposables in Central Asia and they will ban vaping products completely in 2025 as well.
02:37
Joanna Junak: So, based on what you just said, which country in the region has the highest vaping prevalence and in which countries are vaping rates insignificant?
02:49
Giorgi Mzhavanadze: Within the region, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which we covered in our report, Belarus shows the highest vaping prevalence at around 6%. In Georgia and Ukraine, vaping covers around 2-3% current prevalence rate. Elsewhere in the region, rates are insignificant or near zero, particularly in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, where cultural norms, lower disposable income and regulatory bans have limited the spread of vaping. The vaping is non-existent. nearly zero levels. Also, I should emphasize that the statistics which I told you right now, it's outdated, it's from some countries, it's from 2021 or 2022, but we are already in 2025. Due to unfortunately limited data and not regular updates on smoking and vaping prevalence, I can tell you the most recent statistics, but probably the current rate prevalence in the western part of the region, as mentioned by me, for example, in Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine are now much higher than it was three or four years ago.
04:20
Joanna Junak: Right. In addition to vaping products, we also see snus and nicotine pouches in the region. Can you tell us what approaches countries have adopted to regulate these products?
04:35
Giorgi Mzhavanadze: Sure, Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries take quite diverse approaches to regulating smokeless tobacco, traditional smokeless tobacco products and oral safer nicotine products. Several nations like Moldova and Belarus, for example, have banned or restricted certain forms of these products, for example, snus. is banned in these countries, while accepting tobacco-free products such as nicotine pouches from the ban. In Central Asia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, so all five Central Asian countries, have enacted comprehensive ban on all types of traditional smokeless or safer oral tobacco products, except Naswai, which is excluded from the bans. And by contrast, for example, in Azerbaijan and Georgia, these products are regulated, they are legally available and this countries allow production import sale and use of all of these products with quite a few restrictions And regardless of these policies, all Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries require health warnings on these products and prohibit their advertising as well. But regulations will continue to evolve because these products are especially smooth and nicotine pouches. with their prevalence also at nearly 0% in all countries of the region. This evolvement of regulations will continue and probably different countries will take different directions in this regard.
06:44
Joanna Junak: And what are the differences in awareness of harmfulness of tobacco products across countries in the region?
06:53
Giorgi Mzhavanadze: First of all, it should be mentioned that data on public perceptions of tobacco and nicotine products is quite limited in the region. But there were several surveys during the last couple of years in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. And this survey shows that most people recognized cigarettes, combustible cigarettes, as harmful or very harmful for health. Also, newer products like e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and snus, they cause in our population widespread uncertainty and uncertainty and misinformation as well. Around 20 or 40% of population are insured about their relative risk compared to combustible tobacco products. Around one third or a little bit more in some countries think that vapes are more riskier for health compared to cigarettes. In Georgia, for example, over half of respondents don't know whether vaping is more or less harmful than smoking. In Kazakhstan, about 90% of adults, they know and acknowledge that smoking is risky, but only around 20% believe e-cigarettes or heated tobacco are less harmful than smoking. In Ukraine, about 50% of tobacco users choose to believe that it's less harmful. And also some countries show that the consumers who use the product, is it vapes or is it heated tobacco, they use it because one of the reasons is they believe that this is less harmful for health than other combustible tobacco products. So this finding suggests that there is a significant knowledge gap around the relative risk of different products in the region, which highlights the need of targeted education and targeted public health messages to guide both consumers and policymakers.
09:31
Joanna Junak: Okay, given what you just said about the misinformation surrounding the use of relatively safer nicotine products, I need to ask, where does this misinformation come from? Is it due to a lack of education, as you mentioned, or is this not the case?
09:51
Giorgi Mzhavanadze: There are several reasons. First is that the region is under strong influence of WHO and traditional tobacco control groups. This misinformation often comes from public health authorities, Ministry of Economy or local NCDCs, which have published on their web pages or in the social media statements that, for example, and it's citation, that electronic cigarettes are not safer for health compared to combustible cigarettes. That electronic cigarettes do not help smokers to quit smoking. and electronic cigarettes increase smoking initiation so these are the main messages sent from the public health authorities which are quite similar with WHO views on the tobacco harm reduction and safer nicotine products in general. Second is also in the region there in some countries persist high influence of big tobacco, international big tobacco companies who in the region accept some exclusions they do not push tobacco harm reduction and safer their safer nicotine products because they see that legislation enforcement of the legislation and taxation on combustible tobacco products are still low compared to other western countries smoking rates are still high and they don't have a need to introduce into the market safer alternatives because they collect their profits from traditional tobacco products. And also mass media plays a huge role in spreading the misinformation in the region because mass media campaigns, they do not check, in the region, do not check scientific facts and most in most times just repeat the messages from health authorities of local countries or from bad examples, bad science from international experience and international journals.
12:27
Joanna Junak: Thank you, Georgi. That's all for today. Tune in next time here on GFN TV or on our podcast. You can also find transcriptions of each episode on the GFN TV website. Thanks for watching or listening. See you next time.