One in 10 adults – including a staggering one in five men – in Zambia smokes. This equates to approximately 1.2 million smokers and causes the tragic loss of 7,100 lives every year to tobacco-related illnesses.
The Government’s Tobacco Control Bill 2025 seeks to stop the scourge of tobacco in Zambia, and while the intention behind the Bill is to improve public health, it’s clear that the Bill will hinder progress in reducing smoking rates and cost lives.
While certain aspects of the Bill are commendable – such as the ban on nicotine product sales to under-18s – the majority of proposals will actually put smokers’ lives at risk. By introducing a raft of restrictions on safer smoke-free alternatives – such as flavour bans, graphic health warnings and additional licensing for retailers – the Bill will make these products less accessible to smokers who need them to quit their habit.
One of the central tenets of tobacco harm reduction (THR) is the recognition that it is the burning of tobacco, not nicotine itself, that causes the majority of smoking-related diseases.
Smoke-free alternatives such as vapes are proven to be 95% less harmful than cigarettes, and are the most effective tool for smokers seeking to quit. However, the Bill intends to regulate these potentially life-saving products the same as far more harmful combustible cigarettes, undermining their role as a public health tool.
Key issues with the Bill
- Conflation of tobacco and safer nicotine products
The Bill’s definition of the word “smoke” extends to non-combustible nicotine alternatives such as vapes and pouches, despite the fundamental difference in how they are consumed and the associated risks. Regulating nicotine alternatives the same as tobacco products will discourage smokers from switching to safer alternatives and ultimately cost lives.
- Flavour ban
The Bill plans to ban all flavours in nicotine and vape products other than tobacco flavour. Flavours play a crucial role in helping smokers transition away from the taste and appeal of cigarettes and a flavour ban will stop smokers from successfully switching. If nicotine gum is available in various flavours, why should vapes and nicotine pouches be restricted to tobacco flavour?
- Illicit trade
Onerous licensing requirements on law-abiding retailers – together with the flavour ban – will drive smokers and consumers of alternative nicotine products toward the unregulated black market. Here, products are sold without safety controls, potentially exposing consumers to harmful substances while also depriving the government of legitimate revenue.
- Misleading health warnings
The Bill proposes graphic health warnings that equate safer smoke-free alternatives with combustible cigarettes, creating the false impression that they are equally harmful. This misinformation discourages smokers from transitioning to safer alternatives and contradicts global evidence that supports the use of vaping and nicotine pouches as effective harm reduction tools.
A smarter approach to tobacco control
Instead of imposing unnecessary restrictions on harm-reducing nicotine products and removing consumer choice, the Zambian government should follow the example of countries such as Sweden, the UK and New Zealand, which have embraced harm reduction strategies to drive down smoking rates.
A well-regulated but accessible market for smoke-free nicotine products can help Zambia reduce smoking-related death and disease. Sensible policies should:
- Recognise the harm-reduction potential of smoke-free nicotine alternatives.
- Avoid excessive regulation that discourages smokers from quitting.
- Allow the sale of a variety of flavours to support smoking cessation.
- Ensure clear, evidence-based health communication that informs, rather than misleads, the public.
If Zambia is serious about reducing smoking-related deaths, it must rethink its Tobacco Control Bill and embrace harm reduction as a core strategy. Otherwise, the policies intended to save lives, may end up doing just the opposite.
