Legacy panel to discuss harm reduction

The U.S.-based anti-tobacco organization Legacy is due to host a live webcast of a panel discussion addressing key findings in the 2014 U.S. Surgeon General’s report on the health consequences of smoking.

Legacy says the discussions will include how it might be possible, innovatively and more rapidly than presently is the case, to end the premature deaths caused specifically by cigarette smoking, since it is the burning of tobacco that produces the most lethal toxins.

“The burden of death and disease from tobacco use in the United States is overwhelmingly caused by cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products; rapid elimination of their use will dramatically reduce this burden …,” according to the surgeon general’s report. [However] “the promotion of non-combustible products is much more likely to provide public health benefits only in an environment where the appeal, accessibility, promotion, and use of cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products are being rapidly reduced.”

The “Warner Series” panel discussion will consider ways to speed the end of combustible cigarettes and the role that alternative products such as e-cigarettes could play in ending cigarette smoking.

The live webcast, which will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on March 31, will be at www.legacyforhealth.org/warnerseries.