As part of the Global Tobacco Harm Reduction Project, Knowledge Action Change (KAC) has released the latest in a series of briefings. The title is What is Tobacco Harm Reduction? , the publication details the principles, history and evidence of this important public health strategy.

For the 1.1 billion people who smoke combustible cigarettes around the world, reducing tobacco harm is a potentially life-saving approach. Like other forms of harm reduction, it recognizes that not all smokers can simply quit. People smoke for nicotine, but nicotine itself doesn't cause smoking-related death and disease -- it's the chemical inhaled in tobacco smoke. Eliminating burning reduces risk. For those who cannot or do not want to quit nicotine, tobacco harm reduction offers an opportunity to switch to safer nicotine products, including nicotine e-cigarettes, smokeless nicotine pouches, Swedish snus, many U.S. smokeless tobacco and heated tobacco products.

Many of these products have only been developed in the past 10 to 15 years, but they are proving to be more and more popular.

Research published by GSTHR in March estimated that by 2021, there will be 82 million e-cigarette users globally. This is a 20% increase from the 2020 figure (68 million) and means that 112 million people worldwide are using safer nicotine products.

A striking example of the harm reduction potential of tobacco can be found in Scandinavia.

Sweden now has the lowest incidence of tobacco-related diseases in Europe due to the switch from smoking to snus among Swedish men, while in Norway 12% of women aged 16-24 use snus daily, compared to only 1% who smoke.

In the UK, tobacco harm reduction can play a key role in the government's ambition to become smoke-free (defined as prevalence of less than 5% of the population) by 2030, according to KAC. The popularity of e-cigarettes has been accompanied by a rapid decline in the number of smokers.

E-cigarettes are the most popular way to quit smoking, with 3.6 million people vaping in the UK, 2.4 million of whom have quit combustible cigarettes completely. But tobacco remains the largest single cause of preventable death in England, with nearly 75,000 smokers dying from smoking in 2019, with figures showing nearly one in 10 pregnant women smoked during childbirth.

Continuing to reduce smoking rates is critical if the UK government is to address the health disparities caused by smoking, which currently disproportionately burden the most vulnerable families and communities. Smoking rates vary widely across the country - in Blackpool, for example, around one in five people smoke (19.8%), while in Richmond-upon-Thames about every 20 people smoke (6%). There were also very high rates of people with drug and alcohol problems (56% of those in treatment smoked), homeless people (77% of whom smoked in England) and people with mental health problems (26.8% of whom smoked in England) high. England smog).

But according to KAC, adopting tobacco harm reduction is not only helping the UK tackle the effects of smoking.

It has enormous potential as a global public health solution. Smoking kills 7.7 million people each year, and current tobacco control measures are failing to reduce smoking-related deaths and disease fast enough.

Translated into Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, French, Portuguese, Indonesian, Swahili, Japanese, German, Polish, Hindi and Arabic, this GSTHR newsletter aims to Dialogue among countries that reduce harm.

"Ending smoking is possible - but the broadest range of harm reduction products, from nicotine e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products to non-tobacco nicotine pouches and Swedish snus, should be available, accessible, appropriate and affordable Yes,” said Gerry Stimson, Director of KAC and Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London.

“Strong government support is also needed to ensure access to services for marginalized and vulnerable groups. The benefits will be clear in terms of saving lives and protecting communities. Crucially, tobacco harm reduction is an extremely low-cost but effective way to Strategies – this is a rare example of a health intervention that does not require significant government spending because consumers bear the cost. Smoking cessation is possible – tobacco harm reduction is key.”

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