Quit for Good, a public health advocacy group based in the Philippines, has joined forces with 14 scientific organizations and associations from around the world in advocating for the adoption of Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) to reduce smoking-related illnesses.
Dr. Lorenzo Mata Jr., president of Quit for Good, said: “We endorse the consensus statement of SCOHRE—The International Association on Smoking Control and Harm Reduction—to remind the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) Conference of the Parties of the growing support and scientific basis for THR strategies that it continues to ignore.”
The statement, endorsed by Quit For Good and the Harm Reduction Alliance of the Philippines (HARAP), is in preparation for the WHO FCTC’s Tenth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10), which will take place in Panama from November 20-25, 2023.
Dr. Mata continued: “Rather than viewing them as a threat to public health, the WHO FCTC should look at them as tools that can help more than a billion smokers around the world quit smoking. It has been well documented that it is the smoke, and not nicotine, that causes serious diseases among smokers.”
The use of smoke-free alternatives, such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and snus, is supported by scientific evidence that they are far less harmful than combustible tobacco. Countries such as the UK and Sweden have already embraced harm reduction strategies with success.
The consensus statement of SCOHRE noted the mounting scientific evidence that THR strategies can contribute to reducing the detrimental effects of smoking and that switching to less harmful products will have a tremendously positive effect for many people who smoke cigarettes.
Dr. Mata concluded: “Healthcare and public health professionals need to continuously raise awareness to every person who smokes cigarettes and to the overall population about the adverse effects of smoking and that they can be also limited by tobacco harm reduction. We need to increase the knowledge that empowers people to pursue better health.”
Quit for Good, an organization dedicated to promoting harm reduction to mitigate the damage caused by cigarette smoke, is one of 14 scientific organizations from four continents who support the consensus statement of SCOHRE.
Ahead of the COP10 meeting in Panama, Dr. Lorenzo Mata Jr. has called for the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to recognize the evidence in support of Tobacco Harm Reduction strategies. He believes that providing safer nicotine products to reduce harm for smokers is common sense as smokers are already offered nicotine replacement therapy to quit or reduce harm.
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