MANILA, Philippines, Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has launched the Asia-Pacific Declaration, a formal call on health ministers and public health officials across the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions to legalise safer nicotine alternatives for adults who smoke.

The Declaration will be presented at the Asia Forum on Nicotine (AFN26) in Manila on 16 and 17 October, where it now has its own dedicated session on the confirmed programme.

The Declaration argues combustible cigarettes are not the region's only deadly nicotine product. High-risk oral tobacco products, including gutka, khaini, paan, naswar, zarda and mawa, are named as major drivers of a regional cancer crisis. A 2024 study in The Lancet Oncology found smokeless tobacco and areca nut use caused roughly 120,000 oral cancer cases worldwide in 2022, nearly one in three cases globally, and separate WHO data shows 90 percent of the world's smokeless tobacco users live in the WHO South-East Asia region alone.

'Governments keep fighting yesterday's tobacco problem while ignoring the products actually killing people in front of them,' said Nancy Loucas, CAPHRA's Executive Coordinator. 'Almost no government treats a sachet of gutka with the urgency it treats a cigarette pack, yet the cancer numbers say it should.'

Citing evidence reviews including those historically published by Public Health England and the Cochrane Collaboration, the Declaration states nicotine delivered without combustion or high-risk oral tobacco exposure is substantially less harmful than smoking, and has helped millions of adults quit worldwide. It calls risk-proportionate regulation a treaty obligation under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which itself defines tobacco control as covering supply, demand and harm reduction strategies.

'Ban the safer product and smokers don't quit, they just lose a legal supplier,' said Clarisse Virgino, CAPHRA's Philippines representative. 'That is exactly what has fuelled the region's illicit trade problem.'

CAPHRA says the Declaration pairs targeted youth-protection measures, including age-of-sale enforcement and marketing restrictions, with regulated adult access to lower-risk products, and calls on FCTC delegates to demand more transparency from the treaty's Secretariat.

Media Contact: N.E. Loucas Executive Coordinator CAPHRA neloucas@caphraorg.net