2023-06-23 13:22:00
“Harm reduction is an evidence-based, human rights-based approach to public health and consists of policies, regulations and pragmatic actions that reduce risks to the health of individuals and communities, for example by providing access to safer products or encouraging less risky behavior. Harm reduction does not focus solely on eliminating products or behavior, recognizing that prohibition often leads to unintended consequences.” This, as stated in a note, is the opinion of the experts gathered in Warsaw for the tenth edition of the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN23), the only international conference dedicated to the role of products containing nicotine (such as electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products , nicotine pouches and oral tobacco) in helping smokers switch from traditional cigarettes in favor of safer alternatives.
In fact, the reduction of tobacco harm is at the center of the 2023 edition of the Forum, entitled ‘Tobacco harm reduction – The next decade’ and underway in the Polish capital until 24 June, which brought together 70 international experts who address a audience of delegates from 80 countries. One of the evidences underlying the debate proposed by the Forum is that people smoke for nicotine. Unlike the toxic chemicals given off by burning tobacco that are inhaled through smoke, nicotine does not cause cancer. The use of non-combusting nicotine-containing products is a significantly safer alternative in this respect, as numerous independent international research studies show.
The panel ‘The Big tobacco harm reduction conversation – How can the last decade influence and inform the next?’ it was an opportunity to trace a chronological reconstruction – from 2011 to 2023 – of the progress and setbacks of policies regarding products containing nicotine.
According to Clive Bates, moderator of the panel and director of The Counterfactual, “‘user advocacy’, i.e. defending consumers through the presentation of their personal stories, is the winning system for making regulators and politicians understand the positive potential of products containing nicotine”.
As highlighted during the debate by Harry Shapiro, British author and journalist who participated in the panel, “a crucial turning point in the ‘time line’ presented by Bates is represented by the acquisition, by the big tobacco industries, of the companies produce e-cigs and the establishment of the Foundation for a smoke-free world in 2017. These two events have contributed to spreading, both among politicians and the population, a suspicious vision in comparisons of alternatives to traditional cigarettes”.
Among the complexities highlighted by the video contributions broadcast during the debate, also disinformation. As Bates explained, “it contributed, not later than 2020, to causing an unjustified aversion to these devices: this is the case of the panic triggered by ‘evali’, the pathology that involves serious respiratory problems erroneously attributed to the use of electronic cigarettes and instead derived from the use of vaporizers with products containing Thc, the psychotropic substance typical of cannabis”.
“Facilitating access to products with quality nicotine, with high safety standards – said Bates concluding the panel – therefore represents a possible solution to curb misinformation and allow those who cannot or do not want to quit smoking to have a Conversely, by restricting access to these products, governments risk pushing consumers towards less safe, untested and potentially harmful options.”
“Tobacco harm reduction encourages adult smokers who are unable or unwilling to stop using nicotine to switch from combustible cigarettes to safer nicotine products. a rapidly evolving area and the use of such alternatives to traditional cigarettes has raised numerous questions about their safety, who uses them and why, their impact on smoking rates and the role they play in smoking cessation. it also affects governments and regulators, who are trying to figure out what kind of policy and regulation is most appropriate The full potential of tobacco harm reduction can only be realized if it is integrated into the overall public health approach to tobacco together with measures existing tobacco control systems,” the document concludes.
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