“The efforts of governments are aimed at reducing mortality rates and health costs related to smoking. For those who cannot quit, alternative products represent a solution, albeit not without risks. Risk that is halved compared to classic products based on the combustion of tobacco. If they have been approved in the United States and are now a reality in many states of the European community, in Italy they are still struggling to take root, but the direction is marked “. This was explained by Salvatore Novo, full professor of diseases of the cardiovascular system at the University of Palermo and past president of the Central European vascular forum, who took stock – al 63rd regional congress of the Sicilian section of the Italian Society of Cardiology, underway at the University Hospital of Palermo – on prevention strategies and risk factors to be countered, starting with cigarette smoking.
At the center of the meeting the new guidelines on cardiovascular prevention defined by the European Society of Cardiology, which focus “on cardiovascular prevention to protect the health of all at all ages, striving to reduce modifiable risk factors”. On a technical level, Novo recalled that “the combustion at over 900 ° that occurs during cigarette smoking causes the release of carbon monoxide, toxic to the endothelium of the arteries. This binds, among other things, to hemoglobin causing chronic hypoxemia in all smokers. Combustion hydrocarbons and tar also cause the onset of tumors and serious diseases of the lungs, bladder and colon. WHO has focused on the problem and expects to reduce the percentage of smokers worldwide from 25% by 2040 at 5% “.
The university professor is skeptical but points to the only possible way. “The problem is that the nicotine it is addictive. If previously we tried with psychological support with anti-smoking centers, which practically no longer exist due to the spending review, the only alternative is to have nicotine inhale with particular and new generation systems that I recommend to heavy smokers. The risk is halved and the hope is that the use of these innovative products – he concluded – will induce the smoker to quit permanently. “