What is needed to showcase the benefits from harm reduction?
More than 1 billion people globally smoke and more than 7 million die prematurely every year from smoking-related diseases. Smoking cessation and prevention remain the two most impactful and cost-effective interventions in medicine. Yet, we believe that smoking control strategies should be reshaped to include harm reduction. Alternative lower risk products should be encouraged, besides the traditional smoking cessation and smoking prevention measures. Although there is mounting evidence in the literature that tobacco harm reduction can help those who are not able to quit smoking, still there is resistance to include THR strategies in the fight against the detrimental effects of smoking. What is needed to showcase the benefits from harm reduction? What are the threats to public health if THR is barred? How can we raise awareness on existing knowledge? How can we create more opportunities for the education of health policy experts, regulators, and the public to properly explain the benefits of harm reduction? Experts from 5 countries around the globe will elaborate during this panel discussion.
Moderator: Dimitri Richter
- David Sweanor, Canada
- Marewa Glover, New Zealand
- Fernando Bueno, Spain
- Konstantinos Farsalinos, Greece
- Martin Cullip, USA
Speakers
