Require tobacco manufacturers to disclose the contents, purpose and effects of constituents in all their products at regular intervals. Discontinue harm reduction strategies based on naive interpretation of tar and nicotine yield measurements. This means abandoning the strategy of seeking lower nominal tar yields and instead, finding approaches that genuinely reduce harm to nicotine users. Give urgent priority to studying the implications for harm reduction of reducing levels of nicotine and other possible addictive constituents in tobacco products over time. Develop and implement a comprehensive long-term communication program to accompany all the above actions that stresses that there is no safe cigarette and that nicotine addiction is a major public health concern.
Research is needed to advance further progress.
Global tobacco control research needs to be better supported. Within such a plan, emphasis should be given to research to support product regulation within developing countries. Existing research institutions should work together to implement such an approach. Particular attention should be given in research to determining whether a threshold exists for addictiveness. For exposure, a composite measure of toxicity is needed.