Harm Reduction

The World Health Organization s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is scheduled to take up the issue of e-cigarettes at its meeting next month in Seoul and it appears as though the deck is stacked against advocates of tobacco harm reduction. This means more bad news for addicted smokers. A report by the convention secretariat to the countries attending basically urges them to ban e-cigarettes, saying they are products resembling cigarettes and could therefore undermine the denormalization of tobacco use ¦Parties may also wish to consider whether the sale, advertising, and even the use of electronic cigarettes can be considered as promoting tobacco use, either directly or indirectly.
Methadone has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV transmission in people who inject drugs, according to a study published in BMJ. The meta-analysis of several published and unpublished studies from nine countries concluded that making methadone available to injectible drug users reduced their HIV risk by 54 percent.
This may be the first and last time you ll hear us praise Vladimir Putin in the annals of Dispatch. But thanks to the Russian president, a personal fitness buff, the Kremlin seems poised to finally crack down on cigarette smoking. Russia is the world s second-largest cigarette market, behind China, with nearly 40 percent of the country s 143 million people lighting up, including 60 percent of the male population. Russia s deadly habit causes an estimated 400,000 deaths annually, along with $48 billion in health costs and lost productivity.
There s also more evidence out this week about the dangers of cigarettes. A study of 28,000 men who started college at Harvard University between 1916 and 1950 found that smoking in one s teenage years is associated with a 29 percent increased risk of death, even though they quit later.
An Inhalation Toxicology study found that very few chemicals in very low concentrations were detected.
The Oklahoma Legislature is scheduled to have a committee hearing this Wednesday to discuss using tobacco harm reduction strategies as a means to reduce the health damage from cigarettes. ACSH scientific advisor and author of our papers on harm reduction, Dr. Brad Rodu, professor of medicine and an endowed chair in tobacco harm reduction research at the University of Louisville, has written an op-ed encouraging Oklahoma legislators to promote tobacco harm reduction products, which have the potential to reduce the most preventable cause of premature death in the U.S: smoking. He writes:
On his Tobacco Analysis blog, ACSH advisor Dr. Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health excoriates the European Union s revised Tobacco Products Directive. The already restrictive Directive now recommends banning the marketing of all smokeless nicotine-containing products (NCP).
Recently, the Ministry of Health in New Zealand moved to ban Hydro, a popular brand of electronic cigarette. In response, Dr. Murray Laugesen, founder of Health New Zealand, called for the Ministry to review its policy on electronic cigarettes, as such a ban is against the public s particularly smokers best interests. In his open letter, Dr. Laugesen draws attention to a number of key points. As he points out, Persistent tobacco smokers face a lifetime 50 percent risk of dying early ¦ Nicotine products do not cause cancer or heart disease, unlike smoked tobacco products. If there is a tiny risk from nicotine, many smokers are prepared to take that risk, rather than run the deadly risks of smoking tobacco.
A hat tip to Lori Newman, whose article on electronic cigarettes is now online at LifeScript. In it, Newman discusses the benefits of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation device, aided by our own Dr. Gilbert Ross, as well as ACSH scientific advisor Dr. Michale Siegel, a tobacco researcher and professor of community healthsciences at Boston University s School of Public Health. Newman explains how exactly an e-cigarette works, responds to detractors, and discussesthe logistics of the e-cig as a smoking cessation device.
As if there weren t already enough, a new study provides even further evidence of the extensive adverse health effects of smoking. According to a team of Italian researchers, people who continue to smoke after having a stroke have triple the risk of dying within a year.
In keeping with its annual tradition, the New York Department of Health is launching this year s new smoking cessation campaign, called Suffering Every Minute. As previous campaigns have done, this one will include TV, internet, and print ads warning people of the dangers of cigarettes by emphasizing the suffering that smoking causes. And, in collaboration with New York State Smokers Quitline, the Health Department is encouraging smokers to call or sign up online to receive free nicotine replacement therapy products, which will be given away through September 20.
More evidence that, if you re going to smoke (which we don t recommend), you shouldn t do it around your kids: A study published in The Journal of Pediatrics has found that children exposed to second-hand smoke at home are more likely to have serious complications when they come down with the flu.