Tomorrow is World No Tobacco Day, a day to bring attention to the toll of tobacco use on the world s population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) tobacco use is responsible for 6 million deaths around the globe each year, and if current trends continue, this number may rise to 8 million by 2030, the majority of which will occur in low- to middle-income countries.
But while ACSH certainly supports drawing attention to the risks of smoking and its devastating health effects, we take strong issue when organizations designate tobacco as the leading culprit, conflating tobacco and cigarette smoking. Calling it World No Tobacco Day makes it seem as though all forms of tobacco contribute equally to the mortality figures the WHO cites, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross. Yet the vast majority of the so-called tobacco-related deaths are actually caused by inhaling cigarette smoke.
He criticizes the WHO and other health agencies governmental and NGO alike for failing to acknowledge the significantly reduced risk of some smokeless tobacco products, specifically modern snus-type products. He added, Health agencies continue to lump these modified risk products under the general rubric of tobacco, claiming that any and all tobacco is dangerous. But this approach ignores the millions of smokers who are addicted to nicotine and cannot quit tobacco use altogether. Modified risk tobacco products, then, have the potential to allow these smokers to satisfy their cravings while significantly reducing their risk of disease and death from smoking.
In fact, Dr. Ross and ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan have just co-written an article with Dr. George Lundberg of MedPage Today on this very topic: how public health groups continue to ignore the potential of tobacco harm reduction to save smokers lives. As these authors write, Despite the demonstrated benefits of harm reduction, and the lack of efficacy of the approved pharmaceutical products (such as patches, gum, and medications), public health spokespersons, governmental and private, adhere to the mantra, there is no safe tobacco product. Read the piece in its entirety here.