PR90114

LIVERPOOL, England, June 16, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

International public health specialists, scientists, doctors, tobacco control

experts and consumers are convening for the Global Forum on Nicotine 2021 (

https://gfn.events/ )  (#GFN21) on 17 and 18 June in Liverpool, UK, and

streaming free online ( https://gfn.events/register-now ), to highlight the

vital role of safer nicotine products in the fight to reduce global

smoking-related death and disease.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1533686/KAC_Communications_GFN21.jpg

To date, the world has lost an estimated 3.8 million (

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html ) people to COVID-19; a devastating figure

that is, sadly, less than half the annual death toll from smoking (

http://www.healthdata.org/news-release/lancet-lancet-public-health-latest-global-data-finds-nearly-8-million-deaths-smoking

). Every day, 1.1 billion smokers still light up around the world, a number

that has stalled for over 20 years despite decades of tobacco control efforts.

Eighty per cent of the world's smokers live in LMIC, least able to cope with

the disease burden of smoking and in higher income countries, smoking is a

major cause of health inequalities.

People smoke to obtain nicotine, a comparatively low-risk substance, but are

harmed by thousands of toxins released when tobacco burns. Experts at the

Global Forum on Nicotine ( https://gfn.events/programme ) will discuss an

approach called tobacco harm reduction; adult smokers who cannot quit nicotine

are encouraged to switch from dangerous combustible or oral products to safer

nicotine products including vapes (e-cigarettes), pasteurised snus, non-tobacco

nicotine pouches and heated tobacco devices. Compared to continued smoking, all

are significantly less harmful to health.  

Speaking ahead of the conference, GFN ( https://gfn.events/ ) director

Professor Gerry Stimson, emeritus professor at Imperial College London (

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_College_London ), said, "Up to 98

million consumers worldwide have already made the switch to safer nicotine

products. In England, health authorities support vaping to quit smoking and

vapes are now the most popular quit aid. Tobacco-related mortality in Sweden,

where snus has almost replaced smoking, is the lowest in Europe. And in Japan,

cigarette sales have dropped by a third since heated tobacco products came to

market. Manufacturers must now ensure safer alternatives are affordable to

people in LMIC, not just consumers in high income nations."

Professor Stimson continued, "Worryingly, international tobacco control leaders

are doggedly pursuing an irresponsible prohibitionist approach to tobacco and

nicotine, while the WHO actively perpetuates misinformation on new nicotine

products. Public health will not be served nor lives saved by a war on

nicotine, as doomed to failure as the war on drugs. The WHO must refocus its

efforts on supporting 1.1 billion adult smokers to quit by all available means."

Click for media and delegate registration. ( https://gfn.events/register-now )

#GFN21

SOURCE  KAC Communications

CONTACT:  Ruth Goldsmith, KAC Communications, ruth@kaccommunications.eu, +44

(0)7801 845192