New report from the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction reveals only nine users of safer nicotine products for every 100 smokers worldwide - experts argue global tobacco control must adopt harm reduction to save lives

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LONDON, Nov. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Burning Issues: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) 2020

[https://gsthr.org/resources/item/burning-issues-global-state-tobacco-harm-reduc

tion-2020 ] published by UK public health agency Knowledge Action Change (KAC)

[https://kachange.eu/] demonstrates an urgent need to scale up tobacco harm

reduction, which enables smokers to switch to safer nicotine products,

eliminating the smoke that causes death and disease.

In a world-first, the report reveals

[https://gsthr.org/media/releases/burning-issues-full ] that an estimated 98m

people use these products globally: 68m vapers, 20m using heated tobacco

products and 10m using US smokeless or pasteurised oral snus – showing the huge

demand for safer alternatives.

However, these numbers are dwarfed by the global total of 1.1 billion smokers –

a figure that has remained static for two decades despite billions spent on

tobacco control. Eight million people die due to smoking-related disease every year.

At today's open-access online launch [https://events.gsthr.org/ ], co-hosted

with Lilongwe-based NGO THR Malawi [https://thrmalawi.info/ ], the report

authors show that both access to and adoption of safer nicotine products

largely remains the preserve of higher income countries, while 80 per cent of

the world's smokers live in low and middle income countries poorly equipped to

implement tobacco control or treat smoking-related disease.  

The report

[https://gsthr.org/resources/item/burning-issues-global-state-tobacco-harm-reduc

tion-2020] uncovers how tobacco control policy at the WHO is being influenced

by billions of dollars from US foundations campaigning against tobacco harm

reduction, while misinformation is discouraging smokers from switching to safer

products.

The GSTHR's [https://gsthr.org/] live data mapping resource, launched alongside

Burning Issues

[https://gsthr.org/resources/item/burning-issues-global-state-tobacco-harm-reduc

tion-2020 ], demonstrates that safer nicotine products are being banned or left

dangerously unregulated in many countries – while deadly combustible tobacco is

banned only in Bhutan.

Emeritus Professor, Imperial College London, and KAC Director, Professor Gerry

Stimson, says 1.1 billion smokers deserve better. "Integrated into tobacco

control, harm reduction could be a gamechanger in the battle against

non-communicable disease," he said. "Global tobacco control policymakers must

listen to consumers and deliver policies that genuinely focus on reducing

smoking-related deaths by all available means."

Burning Issues

[https://gsthr.org/resources/item/burning-issues-global-state-tobacco-harm-reduc

tion-2020] Executive Editor Harry Shapiro agrees. "Tobacco harm reduction could

and should become a genuine consumer-led public health success. Instead, we're

seeing the start of a war on nicotine."

Guest speaker at today's launch Professor David Nutt, DrugScience

[https://drugscience.org.uk/] founder, argues that to reject the opportunity of

tobacco harm reduction "is perhaps the worst example of scientific denial since

the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus in 1616."

Full media release - https://gsthr.org/media/releases/burning-issues-full 

Report -

https://gsthr.org/resources/item/burning-issues-global-state-tobacco-harm-reduction-2020 

Join launch - https://events.gsthr.org/ 

Infographic - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1325629/KAC_Infographic.jpg 

PDF - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1325630/Knowledge_Action_Change.pdf 

Source - Knowledge Action Change (KAC)