What is Harm Reduction?
Harm reduction is a public health strategy that has been used to reduce or minimise the harm associated with a certain risky behaviour, without necessarily having to eliminate that behaviour. It therefore recognises that there will probably always be people who engage in activities that involve risk. In this regard, harm reduction is a significant public health alternative to outright prohibitions and bans.
What is Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR)?
Tobacco harm reduction (THR) recognises that it’s the burning of tobacco that causes all the main diseases from smoking, not the nicotine. THR is a strategy aimed at moving tobacco smokers to potentially less risky nicotine alternatives such as e-cigarettes (vaping) or nicotine pouches.
THR stops smokers from being exposed to the 7,000 plus chemicals released when tobacco is burnt. Many smokers want to quit but can’t. THR is a pragmatic, evidence-based method to help them stop.
What is THRs Role in Reducing the Health Burden
The field of tobacco harm reduction (THR) can offer a respite to smokers who are unwilling or unable to quit smoking. Several new categories of noncombustible, nicotine-based alternative nicotine delivery systems are substantially less harmful than cigarettes. THR science and products provide an evidence-based method for smokers to reduce the harm caused by their use of tobacco. It does this by incrementally substituting less hazardous products for those more likely to cause harm to their bodies.
THR products are at least 95% less harmful than cigarettes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA).
Benefits of THR
Individual benefits: Benefits for individuals that smoke are that THR reduces death and disease caused by toxicants in tobacco smoke. For those who don’t smoke, THR prevents second hand smoke and avoids smoking role models, which are a powerful influence on young people.
Societal benefits: THR can benefit society in several ways:
Prevents disease. THR products are at least 95% less harmful than cigarettes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA)
Saves lives. Lowest rates of tobacco-related cancer in Sweden because of nicotine pouches (snus). Levy D, Royal College of Physicians
Improves quality of life. Ex-smokers breathe, smell, taste better and feel healthier after quitting or switching to THR products. Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association
Improves society. THR reduces disease, lowers health costs and prevents loss of productivity. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
What THR Success Could Look Like
Sweden has the highest per capita use of the smokeless tobacco product called snus, a smokeless, moist tobacco pouch resembling a small tea bag. Users place the product in the mouth inside the upper lip, between the lip and the gums.
This widespread use of snus, as opposed to cigarette smoking, has been credited as an example of tobacco harm reduction in action. For example, the rates of lung cancer in Swedish men are significantly lower than those in Norway, which has higher rates of cigarette smoking. Aside from several milestone articles on this specific situation, a substantial body of epidemiological evidence supports these claims.
The popularity and widespread use of snus in Sweden, Norway and Canada over many decades have been the focus of hundreds of public health studies. They have confirmed the harm-reducing impact of snus in individuals and probably in society as well.