Category: Harm Reduction

  • Growers have their say

    Growers have their say

    Tobacco growers around the world are concerned about the implementation of inappropriate tobacco-control measures, and they are particularly concerned about a proposal by the US Food and Drug Administration to reduce the nicotine delivery levels of cigarettes.

    Representatives of tobacco-grower organizations from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Macedonia, Malawi, South Africa, Turkey, the US, Zambia and Zimbabwe met in Greece on October 17 for the annual meeting of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association.

    The representatives said growers were aware of the efforts that had to be made to improve tobacco production and sustainability, and to address challenges such as child labour and deforestation. Growers were committed to working in a compliant manner, following good agriculture practices, to produce a crop that supplied a legal market of more than 900 million consumers and that provided a livelihood to millions of farmers, rural workers and their families around the world.

    In a note posted on its website, the ITGA said growers accepted the need to regulate the consumption of tobacco products, but insisted that regulatory measures should be balanced and based on science, not on personal opinions. It was vital to prevent the implementation of measures that had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of millions of tobacco farmers and labourers without achieving any of the desired aims of tobacco control.

    Growers were said to be particularly concerned with the recent proposal by the FDA to reduce the nicotine in cigarettes. This measure would influence policy makers outside the US and the effect of it would be felt by the most vulnerable part of the tobacco value chain, the growers. The reduction of nicotine, said the growers, would make the production and sale of traditional cigarettes almost impossible, pushing consumers to illicit products that did not respect such limits. Demand for legal tobacco would drop sharply without an alternative plan being in place for tobacco growers.

    Those attending the meeting in Greece agreed that a platform that included all relevant stakeholders, including health authorities, should be set up to discuss this issue and seek solutions. But they seemed not to be optimistic.

    ‘The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) keeps excluding growers and their representatives from the discussions being held about matters having a direct impact on tobacco production and, therefore, on growers’ livelihoods,’ the note said. ‘Growers are a legitimate part of this process and they have been asking for their inclusion into the FCTC’s debates.

    ‘Many of the subjects being debated in the FCTC meetings concern tobacco growers across the world. ‘More specifically articles 17 and 18 relate directly to tobacco production as they refer to alternatives to tobacco production and the environmental impact of tobacco growing.

    ‘Growers have been offering their help and their expertise to define measures that will directly affect their future. The legitimate growers’ representatives could have helped the government delegations attending FCTC meetings to have a much more realistic view of the present situation of tobacco growing around the world.

    ‘Growers insist that the WHO FCTC must return to its original mandate under Article 17, as was reiterated at the previous Conference of the Parties (COP6) in Moscow.  Said COP6 reaffirmed the importance of carrying out studies and research to identify alternative crops that could provide a level of income and assured export markets equal to those provided by tobacco.  For this reason, it was agreed upon that pilot projects in tobacco-growing regions would be necessary to demonstrate the long-term feasibility of such alternative crops.’

    Since the beginning of the FCTC negotiations, growers have requested that:

    • their right to be consulted on the development of policies which have a direct impact on them must be guaranteed;
    • the significant economic contribution of the tobacco crop to the economies of tobacco-growing countries should be recognized; and
    • a comprehensive economic study on the market should be conducted and taken into account when proposing measures.

  • Survey supports e-cigs

    A survey carried out in the UK has revealed that ex-smokers say switching to vaping is the most effective way to give up.

    The research, involving 7,464 former smokers and commissioned by British American Tobacco on behalf of its electronic-cigarette brand Vype, showed that from their own experiences of giving up, 33 percent of former smokers found that using e-cigarettes was the most effective method.

    ‘However, the research found that there is still a lack of public awareness around e-cigarettes,’ BAT said in a press note. ‘Amongst the smokers surveyed, only 52 percent said they viewed vaping as less harmful than smoking. And only a quarter of the general public said they would recommend vaping products to a smoker looking to quit.’

    Last month, Public Health England announced that its annual Stoptober campaign would, for the first time, back e-cigarettes.

    In 2015 the agency published an independent review on e-cigarettes in which it concluded that, based on best estimates, the use of these devices was about 95 percent less harmful than is smoking.

    Today’s latest research supports many publicly-available studies, including one from the British Psychological Society indicating that vaping might provide support or an alternative for smokers who want to quit smoking.

    “We welcome the news that for the first time the government is backing vaping in its Stoptober campaign especially given that independent organisations, such as Public Health England, have previously stated that e-cigarettes are around 95 percent less harmful than cigarettes,” said Nigel Hardy, head of the UK Vaping Business at BAT.

    “For many years we have highlighted that vaping can be an alternative to smoking which is why we have, and continue to, invest heavily in innovative next generation products. With our Vype e-cigarette brand, we are leading the vapor market in the UK, offering consumers a range of the highest quality products.

    “However, our research shows there is a knowledge gap which could be holding back the chances of more people stopping smoking. We need better consumer education on this topic and call on the UK government to consider some of the restrictions on e-cigarette advertising. Appropriate marketing can help to ensure smokers have more visibility of vaping products as an alternative to smoking.”

    Further findings from the study were said to include:

    • 61 percent of the general public believe vaping is socially acceptable, but this rises to 68 percent amongst 18-to-34-year-olds.
    • When asked about Stoptober 2017, 26 percent of smokers who were aware of the campaign said they planned to try and quit. 34 percent of smokers were intending to use, or were aware of others planning to use, e-cigarettes to try and quit as part of the campaign. This was higher than for other nicotine products such as nicotine patches, nicotine chewing gum and nicotine inhalers.
    • When asked about Stoptober 2017, 47 percent of smokers recalled the message that “stop smoking for 28 days and you are five times more likely to quit for good”; 11 percent recalled the message that e-cigarettes were a great way to combat nicotine cravings; nine percent recalled the message that the NHS supports e-cigs as a way to stop; and eight percent recalled that they carried a fraction of the risk of smoking.
  • Hoist with his own petard

    Hoist with his own petard

    The World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) has said that anyone affiliated with ‘Philip Morris International’s Foundation for a Smoke-free World’ is ineligible to attend its 17th conference, and will not be admitted.

    The 17th conference is due to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, on March 7-9.

    ‘It will unite researchers, academics, non-governmental organisations, civil society, scientists, healthcare professionals and public officials working on all aspects of tobacco control from more than 100 countries,’ the WCTOH said in a note posted on its website.

    On another part of the website, under the heading, Key Information, the WCTOH said its statement on those affiliated with the Foundation was ‘a reiteration of the core conference admission policy’. ‘Affiliations with tobacco entities (current and/or during the past five years) will make an individual ineligible to attend or present at the conference,’ it said.

    ‘This policy is aligned with the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Article 5.3, which states in its guidelines: “There is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry’s interest and public health policy interests”.’

    The founder and president-designate of the Foundation, Dr. Derek Yach (pictured), was one of the people who were responsible for initiating the FCTC.

  • Nicotine forum announced

    Nicotine forum announced

    The organizers of the Global Forum on Nicotine say that their fifth annual event, GFN18, is due to be held at the Marriott Hotel, Warsaw, Poland, on June 14-16.

    The theme for the forum is ‘Rethinking Nicotine’.

    The program will comprise plenary sessions, symposiums, panel discussions and poster presentations – including video posters.

    The program committee is inviting abstracts for oral presentations and posters. The deadline for the submission of oral presentations is February 11, while the deadline for the submission of poster presentations is April 1.

    The organizers are making up to three scholarships available for early-career researchers who are chosen to make oral presentations.

    The program committee will use selected abstracts to construct themed sessions.

    Authors will be informed if their abstracts have been accepted before the posting of the near-final program on April 22.

    Once again, the International Symposium on Nicotine Technology (ISoNTech) will run alongside GFN18.

    The GFN18 website is at: https://gfn.net.co/welcome.

  • FDA discussion announced

    FDA discussion announced

    The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is due on Thursday to host what it is promoting as the public health community’s first opportunity to discuss the comprehensive approach to nicotine and tobacco proposed in July by the US Food and Drug Administration.

    The FDA proposal includes plans to reduce nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels and to encourage the development of innovative products that might be less risky than are cigarettes.

    The agency’s commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, MD, will speak at the event, which will include too a panel discussion with Mitch Zeller, JD, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, Bloomberg professor of disease prevention, Joanna Cohen, PhD, MHSc, Professor Dorothy Hatsukami, PhD, of the University of Minnesota, and Professor Ken Warner, PhD, of the University of Michigan. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health associate dean Joshua Sharfstein, MD, will moderate the panel.

    The event is due to be webcast at: https://www.jhsph.edu/offices-and-services/practice-and-training/news-and-events/the-regulation-of-nicotine.html.

  • Warning on filters

    Warning on filters

    Filter cigarettes should be recalled from sale in Australia and the tobacco industry forced to pay local government and water authorities for cleaning up the toxic waste caused by discarded butts, according to a story in The Conversation.

    Australians should not be misled about the existence of a ‘safer’ cigarette, the story said. There wasn’t one.

    But without filters, the number of lethal lung cancers might be reduced, more smokers would quit because of the harsh taste of unfiltered smoke, and fewer young people would start smoking.

    The story also attacked the use of ventilation holes in filters, which were said to be present on 90 percent of the licit cigarettes sold in Australia.

    Larger modern filters with tiny holes introduced more air into each puff, making the smoke inhaled feel easier on the throat, the story said.

    But to extract a constant nicotine dose, smokers compensated by taking deeper puffs, and more of them.

    This decreased smokers’ exposure to just a few carcinogens, but increased their exposure to more harmful smoke components in the vapor phase of the smoke.

    This change in smoking behavior had caused a major upsurge during the past 30 years or so in adenocarcinomas. On the other hand, central squamous cell cancers, cancers of larger lung tissue, had reduced in parallel, but this had had no effect on cancer numbers overall.

    A review of evidence on filters and cancer had found filter ventilation had contributed to the rise in lethal adenocarcinomas, and recommended filter ventilation be banned.

    The full story is at: https://theconversation.com/filters-a-cigarette-engineering-hoax-that-harms-both-smokers-and-the-environment-85393.

  • E-cig aid to Smokefree goal

    New Zealand’s Ministry of Health believes that electronic cigarettes have the potential to contribute to the country’s Smokefree 2025 goal, according to a position statement published on health.govt.nz.

    The potential of e-cigarettes to help improve public health depended on the extent to which they could act as a route out of smoking for New Zealand’s 550,000 daily smokers, without providing a route into smoking for children and non-smokers.

    Recent decisions taken by the government had increased the focus on harm reduction and the aim of supporting smokers to switch to significantly less harmful products such as e-cigarettes.

    But the ministry encouraged smokers who wanted to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking to seek the support of local stop smoking services. Local stop smoking services provided smokers with the best chance of quitting successfully and should support smokers who wanted to quit with the help of e-cigarettes.

    The ministry listed the following key messages:

    • The best thing smokers can do for their health is to quit smoking for good.
    • E-cigarettes are intended for smokers only.
    • The Ministry believes e-cigarettes could disrupt inequities and contribute to Smokefree 2025.
    • The evidence on e-cigarettes indicates they carry much less risk than smoking cigarettes but are not risk free.
    • The Cochrane Review found that e-cigarettes can help people to quit smoking, but acknowledges that the evidence is weak due to little data.
    • Smokers who have tried other methods of quitting without success could be encouraged to try e-cigarettes to stop smoking. Stop smoking services should support smokers using e-cigarettes to quit.
    • There is no international evidence that e-cigarettes are undermining the long-term decline in cigarette smoking among adults and youth, and may in fact be contributing to it.
    • Despite some experimentation with e-cigarettes among never smokers, e-cigarettes are attracting very few people who have never smoked into regular e-cigarette use.
    • When used as intended, e-cigarettes pose no risk of nicotine poisoning to users, but e-liquids should be in child resistant packaging.
    • The Ministry of Health is identifying safety standards for e-cigarettes in New Zealand. In the meantime, vapers should buy their products from a reputable source such as specialist retailers.
  • UK GPs endorse e-cigs

    UK GPs endorse e-cigs

    Smoking cessation is one of general practice’s most effective interventions in the battle against cancer, and electronic cigarettes could be a crucial weapon in the GP’s arsenal, according to a story by David Millett for GPonline.com quoting experts at the annual conference of the UK’s Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).

    All evidence pointed to e-cigarettes being an effective tool in helping smokers to quit, experts told the conference held in Liverpool on October 12-14, but only if they were coupled with specialist support and complete cessation of tobacco use.

    In a session on cancer care in general practice, GPs said smoking cessation was one of the most cost-effective ways GPs could help prevent cancer.

    Dr Linda Bauld, a professor of health policy at the University of Stirling, said that the current consensus favored use of e-cigarettes as a quitting aid.

    And evidence suggested they were used almost entirely by ex-smokers and current smokers, and by only very small numbers of never smokers, implying they do not act as a gateway to tobacco use.

    “The crucial message is that e-cigarettes are hugely safer than tobacco – but patients won’t realise any health benefits unless they switch entirely to vaping and stop smoking cigarettes completely,” she said.

    “We should see very encouraging results for smoking cessation. If used every day and with high concentration, these products can help people move away from smoking.”

  • Big fall in young smokers

    Big fall in young smokers

    A national survey conducted in Tonga has found that a significant fall in smoking has occurred among young people, according to a Radio New Zealand story.

    Tonga started an anti-tobacco campaign last year, focusing on the dangers of smoking around children.

    And it relaunched the campaign this year to highlight the general dangers of tobacco use.

    The medical officer in charge of the Tonga Health Promotion Foundation, Dr. Ofa Tukia, said that whereas 22.0 percent of young people had smoked cigarettes in 2010, that figure had now dropped to 14.6 percent.

    Tukia was quoted as saying that she was pleased with the results of the survey, for which the campaign could take credit.

    But she said the number of young smokers was still too high.

    The campaign is due to run until 2020.

  • Further support for e-cigs

    Further support for e-cigs

    Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has welcomed a report by the British Psychological Society (BPS) that yesterday urged wider promotion of electronic cigarettes as a method of stopping smoking.

    “We welcome this report setting out the role e-cigarettes can play in reducing the harm from smoking,” said Hazel Cheeseman, ASH’s director of policy, in a statement posted on the organization’s website.

    “Many smokers have found e-cigarettes helpful in quitting but confusion persists among some about the relative safety of vaping compared to smoking. 2.9 million adults in England currently use electronic cigarettes, over half have already quit smoking and many of the rest are actively seeking to do so.

    “Evidence shows that the most effective way to quit smoking is through a combination of professional face-to-face-support and stop-smoking aids.

    “What health professionals tell smokers about e-cigarettes is important to ensure that smokers have an accurate view of what switching to vaping might mean.

    “It is hoped that if smokers are better informed this will help more to successfully quit tobacco for good.”