In a speech I gave to the Global Forum on Nicotine in June, I noted that when it comes to harm reduction, policy lags far behind the science.
For years, decades, even, politicians and health authorities who should know better have ignored, derided and undermined such measures, stuck in a past in which the tobacco industry played a big, bad role.
The result is that much of the public wrongly believes that nicotine causes cancer, e-cigarettes are more dangerous than combustible ones, and there is no leeway between the extremes of ‘quit or die.’
This is tragic because important sectors of the industry are in the process of transformation and investing heavily in research that is helping to create one of most profound public health shifts in history, namely, the elimination of combustible cigarettes altogether. With over 1 billion smokers around the world, most of them in low to middle income countries, the challenge is daunting.
Dr. Derek Yach – Medium – 2021-07-21.
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