POINT: e-Cigarette Use for Harm Reduction in Tobacco Use Disorder? Yes (September 10, 2021)

The case for e-cigarettes for harm reduction is straightforward. Almost all the harm caused by tobacco use arises from inhaling the products of combustion (smoke) of dried cured tobacco leaf. e-Cigarettes use electricity to heat a liquid to form an inhalable nicotine-bearing aerosol. There is no combustion involved; therefore, there are no products of combustion to inhale. This means the main harmful agents in tobacco smoke are either not present at detectable levels or are present at much lower concentrations than in cigarette smoke. A smoker who switches completely to e-cigarette use ("vaping") is therefore exposed to much lower levels of the toxicants that are the main causes of smoking-related disease.

Clinical Pharmacology of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS): Implications for Benefits and Risks in the Promotion of the Combusted Tobacco Endgame. (August 31, 2021)

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products are novel battery-operated devices that deliver nicotine without combustion of tobacco. Because cigarette smoking is sustained by nicotine addiction and the toxic combustion products are mainly responsible for the harmful effects of smoking, ENDS could be used to promote smoking cessation while exposing users to lower levels of toxicants compared with conventional cigarettes.

Newsletter August 2021 (August 12, 2021)

Despite 8 million annual smoking-related deaths, the World Health Organizations (WHO) seems to have decided that it doesn't have to deal with safer nicotine alternatives until 2023.

President Derek Yach's Statement on the WHO's Global Tobacco Epidemic Report (July 30, 2021)

"The WHO's tobacco control approach is fundamentally flawed. In 20 years, they have simply failed to make any meaningful progress to reduce tobacco consumption, with over 1bn tobacco users today and 8m people dying annually from tobacco-related illnesses."

Hierarchy of Harm Reduction Disagreement (July 27, 2021)

Before 2020, I knew very little about tobacco control. My knowledge did not go beyond what most people know - that cigarettes are bad for your health and could kill you. Subsequently, tobacco harm reduction was a foreign concept to me, although it made logical sense. I volunteered in Lesotho with the Peace Corps; the idea of harm reduction was often used when referring to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Although I did not know much about tobacco control, I was aware that harm reduction had been proven to work in other fields of public health.

Tobacco Harm Reduction: Time to Change Attitudes (July 27, 2021)

In a speech I gave to the Global Forum on Nicotine in June, I noted that when it comes to harm reduction, policy lags far behind the science. For years, decades, even, politicians and health authorities who should know better have ignored, derided and undermined such measures, stuck in a past in which the tobacco industry played a big, bad role.

ARI Newsletter (Volume 1, Issue 5) (July 14, 2021)

Back in 1998, the WHO launched World No Tobacco Day (WMTD) to highlight the dangers of combustible smoking, strengthen global efforts to get smokers to quit and provide an international platform for new anti-smoking policies.

UK Health Agency Reaffirms the Power of Vaping to Help Smokers Quit (July 02, 2021)

On June 25, the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published new draft guidelines encouraging health care professionals to disseminate clear and up-to-date information for smokers who want to use vapes to quit cigarettes.

World No Tobacco Day 2021 Shows Tobacco Control at a Crossroads (June 15, 2021)

Back in 1988, the World Health Organization launched World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) to highlight the dangers of combustible smoking, strengthen global efforts to get smokers to quit and provide an international platform for new anti-smoking policies. The idea was for the organization's member states to present a united front in the fight against tobacco, and their message was stark: quit, or die.

ARI Newsletter (Volume 1, Issue 4) (June 10, 2021)

More than 30 years since the first World No Tobacco Day(WNTD), there are still 8 million annual deaths attributed to tobacco use and more than 1 billion individuals still smoke.