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Berlin A large number of medical and scientific societies and health organizations have formulated recommendations on how to deal with the tobacco and nicotine industry. In essence, they amount to maximum delimitation.

The corresponding position paper Code for Dealing with the Tobacco and Nicotine Industry Impulse for Action for Scientific Societies is in the specialist journal Pulmonology published (2024, DOI: 10.1055/a-2445-4286).

The position paper is intended to implement the call from the World Health Organization (WHO) not to work with the tobacco industry or with organizations or individuals who promote the interests of the tobacco industry in the fight against tobacco consumption.

In the paper, the companies warn of the pharmaceuticalization of the tobacco industry. It distracts regulators from concentrating on the cigarette market.

By advertising a supposed harm reduction through new nicotine products such as vapes, the industry is trying to divide the scientific community and thus position itself as a partner in the production of so-called harm-reducing products.

The tobacco industry successfully influences language use. Using catchy terms such as harm reduction, unsmoke and smoke-free, it deliberately blurs boundaries between levels and types of damage and contributes to undermining the understanding of harm, the paper says.

For example, the industry deliberately spreads the claim that e-cigarettes are approximately 95 percent less harmful than tobacco cigarettes. According to the group of authors of the paper, this is an outdated value, only protected and not proven by scientific studies, from a panel of experts, some of whose members had connections to the tobacco industry.

The societies warn that some groups or individuals who aggressively promote supposed benefits of e-cigarette use do not report receiving financial support from tobacco companies.

Proving a connection to the industry is made very difficult by a large number of players and name changes. In addition, some publications do not indicate a connection to the tobacco industry. These mechanisms made it difficult to deal transparently with information and a conflict of interest.

According to the consensus paper, the specialist societies reject monetary or material donations from the tobacco industry as well as the manufacturers and distributors of new nicotine products such as e-cigarettes, tobacco heaters and other products, as well as cooperation with people and organizations that are sponsored by the tobacco industry or that promote its interests. The professional societies also require the disclosure of current or previous relationships with tobacco companies.

The German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology (DGPPN), the German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine, the German Society for General Medicine and Family Medicine, the German Society for Internal Medicine and the German Society for Cardiology, among others, took part in the position paper Heart and circulatory research, the German Society for Thoracic Surgery and the German Cancer Society are involved. © hil/aerzteblatt.de