2-Day Summit Discusses Harm Reduction, Tobacco Control Policies

On Wednesday and Thursday, 29th and 30th of September, SCOHRE, the newly founded International Association on Smoking Control & Harm Reduction, organized a virtual event from Athens, Greece, to discuss smoking cessation, tobacco alternatives, and where we stand today. With the participation of top researchers and scientists from around the world, the 4th Scientific Summit on Tobacco Harm Reduction: Novel products, Research & Policy’, witnessed the participation of nearly 62 speakers from 31 countries.

According to SCOHRE, eight million people die prematurely every single year due to smoking-related diseases. The main change in recent years is the concept of modified risk product (MRP) tobacco or tobacco-like products, such as vaping cigarettes, heat not burn products among others, which can modify and later reduce the global burden of disease associated with smoking.

In a session by Giuseppe Biondi Zoccai, Associate Professor in Cardiology during the two-day summit, Zoccai delved deep into the difficulties that doctors face in motivating a smoker to give up cigarettes unless they give them an alternative. “I’ve seen people shift from one MRP to another and then finally giving it. E-cigarettes can improve cessation rates,” he said.

Additionally, the session addressed nicotine addiction and the risk of abuse by adolescents. However, Zoccai suggested envisioning a strategy in the future that transitions from nicotine-rich MRP to nicotine-poor MRPS.

The majority of the harm caused by tobacco is a result of its burning. Thus, non-combustible tobacco, and nicotine-containing products that do not burn, have a lower risk in comparison with combustible products.

“Although it is not possible to precisely quantify the long-term health risks of e-cigarettes, available data suggest that they are unlikely to exceed 5 percent of those associated with smoking Cigarettes,” said Zoccai.

Multiple sessions and panel discussions across the promising two-day event reiterated the importance of extensive studies by the scientific community as well as the regulatory bodies to encourage research in harm reduction.

Reviewing the progress achieved so far, Konstantinos Kesanopoulos, Biologist and Senior Researcher at the Special Academic Unit for the Study of Smoking Behavior highlighted that countries will need stronger tobacco control policies to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Non-Communicable Disease Monitoring Framework.

In a session exploring ‘To what extent does scientific data drive political decisions?’, Professor Manuel Pais Clemente, Retired Full Professor of Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Vice President of European Medical Association, emphasized that Europe should follow the FDA’s example concerning harm reduction.

Clement stressed the importance of “starting now”. “Smoking tobacco is a chronic disorder and, even after many failed attempts, many patients cannot quit smoking so we need to have new products and new alternatives,” he explained, adding that harm reduction products are the future.

Dr. Emil Toldy-Schedel, MD and General Director of the St. Francis Hospital in Budapest echoed Clement’s words, highlighting that states do not have enough medical knowledge to create good or bad decisions for regulations, and that is why it is the responsibility of medical personnel to advise local governments through research and data, to drive action and give solutions for generations who suffer nicotine-dependency.

“Harm reduction is the third pillar in smoking control strategy, following prevention and cessation. We cannot be arms-crossed,” concluded Clement, noting that politicians and regulators should make choices based on science to improve public health.