one type of harm-reduced product just
won’t cut it,” he says. “That would be like
asking everyone who likes a tipple to just
drink beer.”
He explains that this why the NNA wants
to see many different types of safer
products made available to smokers who
choose to reduce or replace cigarettes,
whether these be tobacco-based
products or vapour-based ones. “There
are no downsides to reducing harm and
risk from combustible tobacco, and we
are happy to lend our support to anything
that delivers this goal,” he says.
switching to an innovative tobacco
product is phenomenal,” Patwardhan
told delegates at the GFN.
countries: e-cigarettes in England and
tobacco-heating-products in Japan.
What is the Swedish Experience? Different Strokes for
Different Folks
In Sweden, smokers have been switching
to a smokeless product called snus since
the 1970s, with the result that while
tobacco use overall is on a par with the
rest of Europe, snus use has overtaken
smoking (Figure 1). “These three countries, though very
different, are seeing a similar trend –
smokers are switching to alternative
products like never before,” Patwardhan
says. “Clearly, smokers around the
world have different needs and wants.
Sweden has the lowest smoking rate
in Europe at less than five percent
(1), according to the most recent
Eurobarometer.
This compares to
a European average of 24 percent.
Over many decades, this has led to
measurable impacts on public health.
Swedish men, who adopted snus with
gusto, have the lowest rates of cancer in
the developed world (2). This is why we need to continue to
innovate, to create a catalogue of new
and exciting products that will maximise
the opportunities for smokers to switch
out of smoking.”
The Swedish experience happened
over many decades, and it was thought
that this kind of phenomenon could
not be replicated elsewhere. Recently,
however, we have seen accelerated
rates of adoption of other potential
reduced-risk nicotine products in other
“With harm reduction, like with many
other things in life, there are different
strokes for different folks,” according to
Martin Cullip, spokesperson and trustee
of the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) in
the UK. “One harm-reduced product or
(Figure 1)
“
Doing more to
encourage more
smokers to
make the switch
could generate
huge benefits in
public health
“
(Figure 3)
– Professor John Britton, UKCTAS
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