Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) Zambia has urged Parliament to reject the Tobacco Control Bill 2025, saying it threatens lives than saving them.
On Tuesday, Chief Government Spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa disclosed that Cabinet has approved for publication and introduction in Parliament, during the current sitting, the Tobacco Control Bill, 2025, whose objective are to, among others, provide for the protection of present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco use and nicotine addiction.
However, THR Zambia Spokesperson Rebecca Mwambuy stated that as lawmakers consider the new Tobacco Control Bill, they face a defining test of whether government policy will be guided by science, or fear.
Ms. Mwambuy urged parliamentarians to treat a new comparative report, ‘Tale of Two Nations: Zambia versus Sweden’, as essential reading.
She explained that the report shows that, while the Bill’s stated goal of protecting health is laudable, some of its proposals risk doing the opposite.
“By restricting access to safer nicotine alternatives through flavour bans and exaggerated health warnings, the Bill threatens to drive smokers back to deadly cigarettes and stall Zambia’s progress towards better health. Facts are simple but often misunderstood: people smoke for nicotine but die from the tar,” Ms. Mwambuy stated.
Ms. Mwambuy clarified that cigarettes kill because they burn tobacco, producing thousands of toxins.
She added that safer smokeless alternatives such as nicotine pouches, vapes and heated tobacco products, deliver nicotine without combustion, and are proven to be far less harmful.
“Nicotine does not cause cancer, lung disease, heart disease or stroke and is included in the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines in the form of Nicotine Replacement Therapy products, such as patches, lozenges and gum,” she stated.
Ms. Mwambuy pointed out that in countries that have embraced harm reduction products such as vapes and pouches, smoking rates have fallen faster than ever before, with significant public health gains.
She revealed that according to the World Health Organization, 9 percent of adults still smoke daily which is barely down from 11 percent in 2011, with the rate amongst men twice that number, warning that Zambia now risks stifling progress even further.
“The Tobacco Control Bill treats all nicotine products as equally dangerous, requiring them to carry the same graphic warnings as cigarettes. This misleads the public and undermines trust in public-health messaging.”
“International evidence shows that flavours play a key role in helping adult smokers make and maintain the switch from cigarettes. For a country where 9 percent of adults still smoke daily and cessation support is scarce, Zambia should be expanding, not restricting, its harm-reduction toolkit,” she urged.
She called on Parliament to reject provisions that misinform and mislead and instead follow the example of nations who are proving that compassion and science offer the surest path to saving lives.
