Around 1.14 billion people use tobacco. The impact of widespread tobacco use is felt in increased health costs and premature deaths. Annually, an estimated 8 million die of tobacco-related ailments, and 200 million years of life are lost.?
The World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) was created in 2003 to address increasing tobacco users. Unfortunately, our Commission Report (fightagainstsmoking.org) finds that current tobacco control efforts have not been effective.
Tobacco is one of the major causes of death in India, accounting for nearly 1.35 million deaths annually. Thanks to technological innovation, several harm reduction and cessation products are available to curb tobacco use. We are witnessing an innovation explosion with nearly 74,000 patents filed over the past decade.
As of 2018, vaping devices were the fastest-growing category among all new patents, ahead of 3-D printing and machine learning. Some companies have ¡°pharmaceuticalized¡± through technologies that are therapeutic instead of recreational.?
Making these innovations easily accessible, especially in lower-and middle-income countries, where most smokers live, can save between 3 million and 4 million lives a year. There is an urgent need to reach and educate marginalised communities with higher-than-average combustible smoking rates.
Tobacco harm reduction (THR) products are aimed at smokers that have trouble quitting the habit. However, tobacco harm reduction and cessation products face several misconceptions.?
There is a widespread and flawed belief that THR products are as risky as cigarettes and that nicotine causes illness and death. While many users want to quit, these misconceptions hinder acceptance of THR products.?
We must educate people about cessation and THR products so they know the facts and gain a better understanding of the benefits to switching from combustibles to THR.
Persistent smoking in many lower- and middle-income countries and by vulnerable groups in higher-income countries is evidence that many of the current tobacco control strategies are not working.?
The mounting toll of tobacco use is unacceptable, and, if current trends continue, deaths from cigarette and other harmful forms of tobacco will grow from 100 million in the 20th century to 1 billion in the 21st century.
We must improve access, affordability, and acceptability of cessation and THR products through policy interventions and by encouraging public-private partnerships in lower- and middle-income countries. We must adopt the proven technology and innovation of THR products.
India has some of the highest rates of use of dangerous types of smokeless tobacco ¨C and the oral cancer that is often a consequence -- along with a large population of smokers. Implementation of harm reduction strategies and innovations could bring India unprecedented economic and social benefit.
Amb. (ret.) James K. Glassman, Chair of the?Commission to Reignite the Fight Against Smoking. The opinion expressed in the article are author's own.