Health Diplomats

Health Diplomats is a consultancy run by Delon Human, a South African doctor who has collaborated with BAT on its “tobacco harm reduction” activities.¹²³⁴⁵

The Health Diplomats website states that it “deliver[s] solutions by advising clients on strategy, science, policy, consumer behaviour, innovation and dynamic stakeholder engagement.”⁶ It has “partnered” with British American Tobacco (BAT) via its subsidiary Nicoventures.³⁴⁵

Background

Health Diplomats was set up by Human in 2006, and he is President and CEO.⁷ It is registered in Singapore, Switzerland and the UK.⁸ According to UK Companies House, Health Diplomats Limited was incorporated as a limited company in August 2021, offering “business support services”, with Human listed as sole director and employee.⁹ Its 2023-24 accounts state that the company “is supported by a loan from a connected company”, but this company is not specified.¹⁰

Health Diplomats supports harm reduction groups in Africa, Asia and Latin America; has lobbied for less stringent regulation of newer nicotine and tobacco products in Australia; and established a ‘Smoke Free Sweden’ campaign which “encourages other countries to follow the Swedish model”.¹¹

• Read about how the tobacco industry uses the concept of harm reduction to further its business goals.

Relationship to the Tobacco Industry

Between March 2019 and March 2023, the Health Diplomats website made clear its relationship to BAT:¹²

“Our current work, in advancing tobacco harm reduction policies, science and products, is in partnership with Nicoventures, a subsidiary of the British American Tobacco company. The goal is to help establish tobacco harm reduction policies and science. In addition, to increase smokers’ access to innovative, non-combustible forms of nicotine delivery, thereby improving smoking cessation and global health”.³⁴⁵¹²

In February 2019, Riccardo Polosa, a harm reduction researcher who had previously accepted funding from Philip Morris International (PMI), wrote to the UK Parliament and informed them that he was contracted by Health Diplomats to provide consultancy services to “subsidiaries of British American Tobacco…”.¹³

In May 2023, there was no content available on the Health Diplomats website.¹⁴ The site was updated in 2024, now stating that Health Diplomats has “extensive and direct experience in developing effective strategies for government relations and corporate affairs in the pharmaceutical, food & beverage, alcohol, tobacco, nicotine and medical device industries”.¹⁵ A disclosure page stated:

“In the tobacco and nicotine space, harm reduction services have been provided to tobacco manufacturers (multiple companies within the GTNF list of sponsors) and nicotine product manufacturers (pharmaceutical and consumer-based companies). Services have focused on cigarette smoking cessation, substitution and harm reduction in general.”¹⁶

GTNF is the industry-funded Global Tobacco Nicotine Forum. The list of sponsors can be found on its website.¹⁷ Human has spoken at GTNF events, for which he has been paid expenses. See Delon Human for details.

Health Diplomats’ Chief Operating Officer as of 2024, Jessica Perkins,⁷ previously worked at BAT/Nicoventures for 9 years, and has worked with other platforms linked to Health Diplomats (see below).¹⁸

The Health Diplomats website homepage feature an image of a United Nations (UN) building, and the statement “We fully subscribe to the UN’s call for multi-stakeholder engagement and multi-sector action to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases”.⁶ It also states “From our point of view, it is imperative for state and non-state actors, public and private sectors to collaborate to improve health. It is our company’s stated commitment to help build bridges between stakeholders.”⁶

However Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) obliges parties to protect health policy from interference by the tobacco industry and others representing its interests, and interaction should be limited to only that which is necessary for regulating the industry.¹⁹ (See also the TobaccoTactics long read on how the tobacco industry has appropriated the UN Sustainable Development Goals in order to promote its newer products, and claim a position as a legitimate stakeholder in matters of global development.)

Organisations and campaigns linked to Health Diplomats

Smoke Free Sweden

In March 2023, Health Diplomats launched a “Smoke Free Sweden” campaign,²⁰²¹ which “encourages other countries to follow the Swedish model when it comes to Tobacco Harm Reduction”.¹¹ There is no funding information on the website, but ‘Smoke Free Sweden’ is described as a “non-profit” on its LinkedIn profile.²²

The Smoke Free Sweden website states that Sweden’s low smoking rates “can be attributed to Sweden’s pragmatic, risk-based approach in the regulation of alternative nicotine products”.²¹ It also states that the WHO FCTC should take a similar approach and ensure that “alternative nicotine products are acceptable, accessible, and affordable”.²¹ Among the products that the campaign advocates use of in this context are e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and snus.²³

Similar claims have been made previously by tobacco companies, which have referred to the ‘Swedish experience’ as proof of concept that switching smokers to snus can be an effective harm reduction approach. However, this theory has been challenged by public health experts. See The Swedish Experience for background, and below for an example of how this argument has been used to lobby against regulation in South Africa.

Outputs featured on the Swedish campaign website include a report commissioned by Health Diplomats, co-authored by Human, titled: ‘The Swedish Experience: A roadmap for a smoke-free society’.²³ The report highlights several steps that the authors state are “key to driving considerable reductions in smoking prevalence”. This includes recommendations to reduce the regulation of newer nicotine and tobacco products, including: implementing “low or no excise tax on smoke free alternatives”, and “ensuring a range of flavours and nicotine concentrations for consumers to buy” so that, according to the authors, products are able to satisfy smokers.²³ One of the other co-authors, Professor Karl Fagerström, has received consulting fees from Swedish Match and other tobacco companies (see below).²⁴²⁵²⁶ (PMI had acquired over 90% of Swedish Match in late November 2022, and the whole company by February 2023).²⁷ The third co-author, Dr Anders Milton, is listed as chair of the Snus Commission. This organisation is described as an “independent commission” but is funded by the Swedish Association of Snus Manufacturers,²⁸ of which Swedish Match and BAT Sweden are members.²⁹

Human, Fagerström and Milton attended the launch of the report in Stockholm, in March 2023.³⁰

Milton is also a member of the Oral Nicotine Commission (see Delon Human and below) and is involved in the Quit Like Sweden campaign, which was established in April 2024.³¹³²

Smoke-Free Sweden activities:

• In April 2023, the authors submitted the report and related policy recommendations to the public consultation of the European Union Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), which aimed to evaluate the current legislative framework for tobacco control.³³³⁴
• In September 2023, BAT featured a ‘Smoke Free Sweden’ video in a presentation to its investors.³⁵³⁶
• In November 2023, following the postponement of the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO FCTC, ‘Smoke Free Sweden’ published a press release, urging the FCTC to use the delay “to consider smoke-free success stories like that of Sweden.”³⁷
• In 2025, Smoke Free Sweden put out a press release urging support for EU countries opposing Spain’s proposed ban on nicotine pouches.³⁸

Further press releases can be found on the Smoke Free Sweden website. (See below)

The ‘Smoke Free Sweden’ campaign has been cited by other organisations linked to Health Diplomats, including the African Harm Reduction Alliance (AHRA, see below), to lobby against a tobacco control bill in South Africa, as well as the Asia Harm Reduction Alliance (AsHRA, see below) to call for the use of harm reduction policies and products in Bangladesh.

The following organisations state on their websites that they are “supported by individual donors and Health Diplomats”, and that Health Diplomats also maintains the websites.³⁹⁴⁰⁴¹

Africa Harm Reduction Alliance (AHRA)

In June 2015, Human and Kgosi Letlape co-founded the Africa Harm Reduction Alliance (AHRA).⁴² Letlape is the South Africa Commissioner for the ‘International Commission to Reignite the Fight Against Smoking’, which was funded by the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW) in 2021.⁴³⁴⁴⁴⁵ FSFW (now known as Global Action to End Smoking) was solely funded by Philip Morris International (PMI) under a multi-year pledge (2018-23).⁴⁶

Letlape is also President of the Africa Medical Association (Human is Secretary General).⁴⁷⁴⁸ Human and Letlape are the only personnel listed on the AHRA website.⁴⁹

Challenged the inclusion of e-cigarettes in South Africa tobacco control bill

In his role as AHRA’s co-founder, Human has challenged the inclusion of e-cigarettes in the proposed South African Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill that was going through Parliament in 2019.⁵⁰⁵¹ Human argued that by including e-cigarettes, the Bill treats such products as having the same risk profile as conventional cigarettes, whereas in Human’s view “new research show[s]…that vaping products are 95% to 99% safer than conventional cigarettes”.⁵¹ Here, Human may have been referring to findings of the evidence review published in March 2018 by Public Health England,⁵² whose stance on e-cigarettes has caused significant controversy both in Britain and internationally.⁵³

An update to the bill was presented to Parliament in May 2023, and in his role as AHRA’s Secretary-General, Human called on the South African parliament to adopt the “Swedish way”. Citing Health Diplomat’s ‘Smoke Free Sweden’ campaign, Human stated that the bill could jeopardise hopes of South Africa becoming smoke-free.⁵⁴⁵⁵

AHRA published articles on its website opposing the bill, and held a tobacco harm reduction webinar, again citing the ‘Smoke Free Sweden’ campaign and Health Diplomats report.⁵⁶⁵⁷⁵⁸

The South African National Council Against Smoking criticised this lobbying, pointing out that it ignores Sweden’s “long history of strong tobacco control measures” with regulations on cigarettes also applicable to e-cigarettes.⁵⁹

• See also South Africa: Industry Interference with the Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill.

Responded to consultation in Australia

Between November 2022 and January 2023, the Australian drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), opened a consultation to consider proposed reform or regulations relating to e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.⁶⁰

Human co-authored a submission to the consultation in January in his role as Secretary General of AHRA, alongside Kgosi Letlape, co-founder of AHRA.⁶¹ The submission urged the regulator to adopt a tobacco harm reduction approach rather than impose further restrictions on its existing nicotine prescription model, such as bans on flavours and disposable e-cigarettes, nicotine level caps and restrictive plain packaging.⁶¹

The submission’s conflicts of interest (COI) statement failed to mention Human’s relationship with BAT, despite a requirement for submitters to disclose any past or current ‘actual or perceived’ tobacco or e-cigarette industry links. Instead, Human wrote that AHRA had “not received any tobacco industry funding” and he had “currently, no contract with any nicotine company whatsoever”.⁶¹ Human subsequently updated his COI in a separate response form at the TGA’s request following a media article exposing how some submitters had failed to disclose their industry links. The statement included slightly more detail on how he had advised pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson) “on optimising NRT as part of smoking cessation and companies developing oral nicotine pouches & ENDS” but did not mention Health Diplomat’s partnership with BAT/Nicoventures ⁶² The co-authors did not submit COI declarations.

• For details of BAT’s lobbying on e-cigarettes in Australia see E-cigarettes: British American Tobacco

In March 2022, AHRA made a submission to Australia’s Department of Health public consultation on the proposed National Tobacco Strategy 2022-30.⁶³ stating that: “…the Government of Australia, should decide strategically to exploit the opportunities of tobacco harm reduction and move to a system of risk-proportionate regulation covering all consumer nicotine products”. ⁶³

Criticised COP 10

At COP 10, Letlape stated that proposals by the WHO would “criminalise tobacco harm reduction activism” and that the WHO FCTC was trying shut down debate and freedom of the press.⁶⁴

Asia Harm Reduction Alliance (AsHRA)

AsHRA was established in September 2022,⁶⁵ with its launch announced by AHRA and tobaccoharmreduction.net (below).⁶⁵⁶⁶

The AsHRA website does not appear to list members or personnel.⁶⁷ According to her LinkedIn profile, Jessica Perkins has been AsHRA’s Chief Operating Officer since January 2023.¹⁸

AsHRA’s stated mission is to “reduce drug, alcohol and tobacco-related death and disease in Asia Pacific and the Middle East by educating policymakers on the benefits of harm reduction policies.”⁶⁸

On 27 May 2023, AsHRA organised the THR Summit 2023 event in Dhaka, Bangladesh, alongside Voice of Vapers Bangladesh. AsHRA stated that it aimed to “raise awareness of the benefits of tobacco harm reduction for individual and population health, the economy, and establish Bangladesh as a best practice and proof of concept”. Speakers listed included Human, Kgosi Letlape and Derek Yach (former President of FSFW).⁶⁹ Human again promoted the Swedish model, which he said was “being followed in countries like the United Kingdom, which now offers free e-cigarettes to those who want to quit smoking.”⁷⁰⁷¹ The Dhaka Tribune reported that on the same day, it hosted a round table event in association with AsHRA titled “The role of Tobacco Harm Reduction in achieving Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Smoke-free Bangladesh vision by 2040”. Human again argued that tobacco harm reduction should be made part of Bangladesh’s strategy.⁷²

Pan American Harm Reduction Alliance (PAHRA)

PAHRA was launched in April 2023, with Human referred to as “chief executive” in a media report.⁷³ The PAHRA website does not appear to list its members or personnel.⁷⁴

In May 2023, it held an event in São Paulo titled the ‘South American THR Seminar’, which was moderated by Human, alongside Jessica Perkins. Other speaker listed included Kgosi Letlape, Derek Yach and Anders Milton.⁷³⁷⁵

Tobaccoharmreduction.net

Human is the Founder of THR.net,⁷⁶ The website does not list members or personnel, other than Human. However, according to the Health Diplomats website, this platform is led by Jessica Perkins.⁷

The THR website states that it “provides comprehensive, science-based information on tobacco harm reduction…[and] advocacy tools and guidelines for those who want to promote the development and establishment of harm reduction policies, science, regulated products and consumer empowerment.”⁷⁶⁷⁷

The site also advocates for the World Health Organization and governments worldwide to distinguish between smoked and smoke-free products, stating that nicotine products should be regulated in a risk-based, proportionate manner.⁷⁸

In March 2022, a post on the THR.net website encouraged users of e-cigarettes to make submissions to Australia’s Department of Health public consultation on the proposed National Tobacco Strategy 2022-30.⁷⁹

Activities around COPs

Report published in the run up to COP 10

A Smoke-Free Sweden report, co-authored by Human, was published in October 2023, titled “Integrating harm reduction into tobacco control. How many lives could be saved by accelerating tobacco control policies in low and middle-income countries, specifically Kazakhstan, Pakistan, South Africa, and Bangladesh?”⁸⁰

Derek Yach, former President of FSFW, was the principal author of the report.⁸¹ Evidence cited in the report includes tobacco company research, and resources funded by FSFW.

The report summary ends with a call for action at COP10:

“This report demands several actions. Member States at COP10 need to activate the harm reduction provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)… Governments need to regulate nicotine products proportionate to the risk they pose to health…THR users need to galvanise into a powerful movement that advocates pro-THR policies. Industry needs to step up THR activities in LMICS and consider developing products that meet medical licensing approval”.⁸¹

THR.net held the launch event for a report.⁸¹

Human and Health Diplomats were also active in and around COP 11. In September 2025, Smoke Free Sweden launched a report titled “The Safer Nicotine Revolution: Global Lessons, Healthier Futures”, which stated that “COP11 should focus on provisions of the treaty that need updating to incorporate THR”, and republished a proposal made at COP 10 to establish a working group on harm reduction.⁸² TobaccoHarmReduction.net promoted the ‘Good COP/Bad COP’ campaign by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA),⁸³ and AHRA criticised the language of the COP agenda.⁸⁴

Related organisations

See Delon Human for details of the following:

• Oral Nicotine Commission – Human is chairman. Other members are involved in organisations linked to Health Diplomats or have co-authored Smoke Free Sweden reports.
• Euroswiss Health – a consultancy co-founded by Human which funded a 2014 study assessing the relative harm of nicotine-containing products, which stated that e-cigarette use is 95% safer than smoking.
• NicoLIFE – a company set up by Human in 2008. Provided consultancy to BAT and funded the writing of a book on tobacco harm reduction.

Relevant Links

• Health Diplomats website

Tobacco Tactics Resources

• Delon Human
• Newer Nicotine and Tobacco Products: British American Tobacco
• Harm Reduction
• The Swedish Experience
• Quit Like Sweden

TCRG Research

The Science for Profit Model—How and why corporations influence science and the use of science in policy and practice, T. Legg, J. Hatchard and A.B. Gilmore, Plos One, 2021, 16(6):e025327