Tobacco harm reduction
[16] The strategy is controversial: supporters of tobacco harm reduction assert that lessening the health risk for the individual user is worthwhile and manifests over the population in fewer tobacco-related illnesses and deaths.For instance, cigarette smoking is the dominant form in the United States, while use of cigars, pipes, and smokeless tobacco is limited to a much smaller population.Anti-smoking advocacy efforts and widespread popularization of the negative health effects of smoking over the last few decades have led to restrictions in the sale and use of tobacco products.In October 2008, the American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP) became the first medical organization in the United States to officially endorse tobacco harm reduction (THR) as a viable strategy to reduce the death toll related to cigarette smoking.[25][26][27] In the United States, the tobacco industry and cigar brands have aggressively targeted African Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites with customized advertising techniques and tobacco-related lifestyle magazines since the 1990s.The report examined the case of snus as "a unique natural experiment in the impact of a socially accepted, non-medical, affordable and easily accessible reduced harm product on the prevalence of tobacco smoking".The MRTP application seeks to modify the warning labels on smokeless tobacco products such that they reflect the evidence of reduced-harm compared to smoking."[38] After five years, on October 22, 2019, the FDA granted the first-ever modified risk orders to Swedish Match USA, Inc. for eight snus smokeless tobacco products.[42].However, England's Office for Health Improvement and Disparities have concluded that, in the short and medium term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking.The World Health Organization acknowledge that e-cigarettes may play a role in harm reduction strategies, but should be regulated to minimize any potential risks.[13] While the eventual regulatory status of e-cigarettes in many countries remains uncertain,[13] public health advocates view electronic cigarette as having a valid place within tobacco harm reduction strategy.[48] Since currently approved smoking cessation methods have a 90% failure rate, the use of e-cigarettes as a prominent THR modality is likely to substantially reduce tobacco-related illness in the United States, with the potential to save 4.8 million lives over the next 20 years.In a 2004 survey, about 80-100% of participants incorrectly perceived low-yield cigarettes as harm-reducing, while 75-80% mistakenly believed that switching to smokeless tobacco conferred no risk reduction.[50] In 2015 a report commissioned by Public Health England noted, as well as the UK figures above, that in the US belief among responders to a survey that vaping was safer than smoking cigarettes fell from 82% in 2010 to 51% in 2014.", Dr. Jed E. Rose co-inventor of the nicotine patch said, "Having worked my entire career to develop effective smoking-cessation treatments, I have realized that current approaches are ineffective for the vast majority of smokers.