Would alternate tobacco products use be better than smoking?
Tobacco use is dominated by cigarette smoking. Most toxicity due to cigarette smoking is related to the burning process. Several observations suggest that unburned or oral tobacco is less harmful than cigarette smoking. Up to now, physicians have advised a policy based on two ideas: (i) young people should not start smoking and (ii) the only choice for smokers is to quit. However, numerous smokers cannot or do not want to give up; eventually, one out of two lifelong smokers will die from smoke-related diseases. Thus, it is legitimate to ask if alternate nicotine containing product use would be better than cigarette smoking and limit the tobacco death toll. However, the logic leading to the concept of tobacco harm reduction (THR) turns out to be much more complex than it looks at a first glance.
Martinet
Yves
Y
Unité de Tabacologie, Service de Pneumologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Nancy, France. y.martinet@chu-nancy.fr
Bohadana
Abraham
A
Fagerström
Karl
K
D016739:Behavior, Addictive; D040261:Harm Reduction; D006801:Humans; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control*