A Filipino doctor who participated in an international forum organized by the Economic Times said there are other ways to reduce the harm caused by smoking besides quitting smoking or dying.

Dr. Lorenzo Mata Jr., chair of advocacy group Quit for Good

Harm reduction involves real, practical and tangible solutions that provide the best way to quit smoking completely, said Dr. Lorenzo Mata Jr., president of advocacy group Quit for Good.

“At the heart of tobacco harm reduction, vaping products or e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products can serve as safer ways for people to continue using nicotine, but without the health risks of smoking. For adult smokers who do not give up nicotine, quitting or dying is no longer the case is the only option," he said.

Dr. Mata is part of a panel on the topic "Cleaning the Smoke: Assessing the Scientific Basis for Harm Reduction and Creating a Framework for Integrating Science into Policy Development." The discussion was part of the third edition of the Economic Times Consumer Freedom Conference, which discussed "Reshaping society's perceptions of harm reduction: medical and scientific perspectives".

In 2021, the NGO Harm Reduction International reported that 98 countries supported harm reduction in national policy documents.

"If we're talking about smoke-free alternatives as replacement therapy, it's time we all recognized the effectiveness of vaping products or e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products as risk reduction strategies for adult smokers," Dr. Matta said.

He said that as of 2015, there were still 17 million smokers in the Philippines who had a cessation rate of just 4 percent, essentially unchanged from 2009, when smokers relied solely on cessation or drugs such as nicotine gum and nicotine replacement therapy.

"The grim evidence of smoking prevalence in the Philippines proves that these options are ineffective in addressing Filipino smoking habits. In this context, we should look for other ways to reduce smoking-related harms rather than reintroduce die-hard smokers to combustible cigarettes. ."He said.

The Philippine Senate and House of Representatives recently approved a comprehensive report on the E-Cigarette Bill, which seeks to regulate the manufacture, trade and use of e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and other less harmful alternatives to combustible cigarettes. The bill awaits the President's signature.

Dr Matta said these new products differed from traditional cigarettes in that they did not involve burning and did not produce smoke. "These smokeless products only heat the liquid in the vapor product and heat the tobacco in the tobacco product, unlike combustible cigarettes that produce smoke by burning tobacco. When the tobacco in the cigarette burns, harmful components are released into the smoke. World Health Organizations say there are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 250 are harmful and more than 50 are said to be carcinogenic," he said.

Dr Mata said he has always believed in the concept of tobacco harm reduction, which the 2021 Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) report defines as "a set of pragmatic policies, regulations and actions that either reduce health by providing safer products or substances form or encourage less risky behavior to take risks.”

According to the report, THR, or the use of safer nicotine products, offers a new option for millions of people around the world who want to get rid of smoking or other dangerous forms of tobacco use but don't have the option.

Dr. Mata acknowledged that there is a great need to educate adult smokers and medical professionals about the science behind the less harmful effects of vaping products and smoke-free alternatives such as HTP.

"In the case of vaping products and heated tobacco products, the clinical application of tobacco harm reduction should be strengthened to accelerate the decline in smoking rates," he said.

Dr Matta said when a die-hard smoker approached him, he always told them to quit smoking altogether. "It's the best way to eliminate the harms of combustible cigarettes. But I also know that many of my patients don't really quit smoking. To counteract this, it becomes impactful to advocate for other ways to quit combustible cigarettes. This is steam when products and heated tobacco products work,” he said.

He confirmed that nicotine replacement therapies such as nicotine gum, nicotine patches and nicotine sprays have very low success rates. "But for progressive physicians like me, we don't give up, but go to another level in the scope of risk reduction -- namely recommending smokeless vaping products and heated tobacco products to die-hard smokers. This is actually reducing The basis of tobacco harm," he said.

Unfortunately, despite a wealth of peer-reviewed scientific research supporting the risk-reducing benefits of vaping products and HTP, many physicians still endorse old smoking cessation methods or simply prescribe nicotine replacement therapy, Dr. Mata said.

"We cannot therefore overemphasize that medical professionals and clinicians around the world should research and evaluate the extensive scientific evidence that supports tobacco harm reduction and related products as better alternatives to combustible cigarettes - combustible cigarettes that are less harmful based on scientific research And the correlation is strong with quitting smoking - significantly reducing smoking rates in the country," he said.

According to the World Health Organization, combustible tobacco smoking kills more than 8 million people every year.

"It's a wake-up call for every government to really invest in improving overall public health by any means possible," he said.

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