One of the viable ways of achieving harm associated with tobacco smoking is to have alternative products that will reduce risks to individuals, Gizelle Baker, Vice President Global and Scientific Engagement of Philip Morris International (PMI), has said.
Speaking at Open Science, a PMI event that focuses on the concept of tobacco harm reduction and the role scientifically substantiated smoke-free products can play by complementing existing tobacco control measures, Baker said the next available challenge is to make people switch to the products.
The world currently has about 1.1 billion smokers, most of whom are at the risk of contracting cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer and other smoking related diseases, fueling the call for aggressive efforts towards tobacco harm reduction.
Baker noted that tested and proven scientific data which have indicated the possibility of a decline in the risk of having cardiovascular diseases when people quit smoking or in the minimum, switch to the use of alternative products, is at the heart of the harm reduction campaign.
“The acceptability of the product is very important”, Dr Baker, an epidemiologist and an expert in tobacco harm reduction, has said while noting that people who quit smoking completely have reduced risk of contracting cardiovascular diseases.
“To achieve harm reduction, we need products that will reduce the risk to individuals that use these products. The next is to make people switch to these products and continue to use them. There is a reduction in risk of having cardiovascular disease when one quits smoking. There is also a reduction when people quit and switch to alternative products”
For his part, Peter Harper, a physician and medical oncologist who said studies about the global trend in prevalence of smoking show that there is a decrease, said the newer products, if used, can significantly reduce harm.
“Advertising, high taxes have not been able to discourage people from smoking. Currently, the world has 1.1bn smokers, all of whom are at the risk of lung cancer and other diseases. Therefore, the ideal thing is for smokers to quit.
“If they cannot quit, they should use alternative products. However, the world has to use all the tricks it can to get people to quit smoking” Harper added.
The way to maximise harm reduction potential is to eliminate tobacco completely but using alternatives like the heated tobacco products or e-cigarettes where cessation is not possible, can help to reduce harm.
Panelists at the event said data from researches so far conducted suggest that using alternative products to cigarettes like vaping, oral smokeless, can significantly reduce the risk of tobacco-related diseases.
The panelist, however, admitted that more than anything, people need to have big behavioral changes and insisted that even though quitting remains the best option, where that is not possible, smokers should switch to alternative products to help reduce harm.
