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Only 5 out of 100. According to research, so many smokers are able to quit cigarettes without resorting to professional medical attention. Worse, many of them do not seek such help at all. In Poland, approximately 800 patients out of over 7,6 million smokers use the services of specialist clinics treating cigarette addiction annually. At the International Nicotine Forum, experts from around the world alerted that institutions that should protect public health often harm smokers themselves. By demonizing the nicotine substitutes that are less harmful than cigarettes and blocking access to them, they condemn them to smoking for the rest of their lives.
- The number of smokers in the world (1,1 billion) and in Poland (almost 8 million) is falling very slowly
- Smokers know that smoking is harmful, but have a hard time giving up smoking
- That’s why experts argue: When a total withdrawal from smoking is not achievable, the alternative should be to reduce the harm caused by smoking. What is this?
- You can find more similar news on the TvoiLokony home page
Smokers know that cigarettes are poison – but they still can’t get over them
Today, there is no need to convince anyone about the harmfulness of smoking, an addiction that negatively affects the health of not only smokers, but also those around them. Smokers are well aware that their bodies will “bill” them for years of addiction. The problem is that smoking is an addiction that, like any other addiction, is difficult to eliminate. Therefore, the number of smokers in the world (1,1 billion) and in Poland (almost 8 million people) is falling very slowly. To such an extent that the decrease is even within the limits of the statistical error.
For smokers who want to quit, specific treatment paths are provided: including access to psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy. There is also a nicotine replacement therapy, including nicotine gums, lozenges or patches, recommended as a relatively safe form of nicotine supplementation by the WHO itself (World Health Organization). However, even all of these together may not be enough. And – as medical practice shows – it is often not enough.
A huge percentage of smokers, despite being treated for this addiction, eventually returns to it anyway. And each subsequent attempt to say goodbye to the “speech bubble” reduces the impact of the therapies used. As a result, although many smokers know that when they reach for a cigarette, they seriously harm themselves and those around them, there is no way to definitely say goodbye to the addiction. That is why they continue to smoke cigarettes. According to the analyzes cited at the International Nicotine Forum, such smokers constitute the vast majority of smokers. With them in mind, replacement products with nicotine were created. These are mainly sachets, electronic cigarettes and tobacco heaters. All of them are still harmful to your health, but they are only a fraction of the harm associated with smoking. In this sense, such products can support the fight against cigarettes in many countries around the world.
Nicotine on tongues
Experts from the International Forum on Nicotine drew attention to this topic. It is a series of debates organized in Poland since 2014 and devoted to the problem of smoking. The main task of the Forum is to present a scientific picture of nicotine, the real role of which in this addiction is sometimes demonized. As a result, smokers themselves often attribute the greatest evil to her. This is a mistake.
Neither the WHO nor the International Agency for Research on Cancer recognize nicotine as a carcinogen. Science sees nicotine as the main source of addiction, but not nicotine as the main cause of the diseases that smokers suffer and die from. It is for this reason that WHO allows the use of nicotine preparations in smokers as a support in the treatment of their addiction to smoking. Therefore, not everything containing nicotine harms the health of smokers. Some products with this substance are used in the treatment of this addiction.
According to GFN experts, the same should be applied today to nicotine substitutes for cigarettes, which – although still harmful to smokers – may reduce the risk of their developing, for example, lung cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as the vast majority of other diseases, the main culprit of which is cigarette smoke and the toxic compounds it contains. There is no such smoke in nicotine substitutes.
Researchers in the field of science and medicine have discussed together how to accelerate the rate of quitting smoking in the world and how to reduce the negative effects of smoking. They gave examples of countries where governments – instead of a policy of banning and scaring smokers – focus on dialogue and education. They also explain to nicotine-dependent smokers the differences between available nicotine products and their health effects, encouraging them to choose less harmful and risky forms of nicotine consumption. New Zealand, Great Britain, Canada, the United States and Japan – these are just some of the countries where smokers can count on the so-called bridging therapies, that is, to break the addiction to smoking by a temporary stop in the form of nicotine substitutes for cigarettes.
Harm reduction – an alternative for those who cannot quit smoking
The group of experts of the International Forum on Nicotine included over 50 people, including experts from the world of science, medicine, politics and law.
The common conclusion from the Forum is in line with the trends that have been in force for several years: in a situation where complete withdrawal from addiction is not achievable for some reason, the alternative should not be to quit and persistently use the same methods, but to reduce the damage caused by smoking.
Therefore, smokers who have clear difficulties in giving up cigarettes should be offered other (implicitly less toxic) forms of nicotine delivery. In order to reduce the health damage caused by cigarettes:
We must not constantly confront smokers with the choice of “quit or die”. Many of them will smoke despite knowing how harmful it is. These people urgently need alternative solutions that will reduce the risk of smoking-related diseases and premature death, said Prof. Brad Rodu of the University of Louisville, specialist in reducing harm from smoking and this year’s laureate of the Michael Russell – a psychiatrist who is famous for saying that smokers smoke for nicotine, but die from cigarette smoke and tar.
Experts from the International Nicotine Forum have no doubts today: in their opinion, encouraging active smokers to abandon cigarettes in favor of tested nicotine substitutes is appropriate if treatment has not resulted in nicotine abstinence.
As a physician and public health specialist, I am delighted to welcome each new smoking liberation product. Clinical studies that I conduct at the University of Catania have shown that in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] and asthma, such a change [switching from cigarettes to alternative products – see red] improves the functioning of the respiratory system – says prof. Riccardo Polosa, pulmonologist and allergist, director of the Italian Institute of Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology.
Clive Bates, who from 1997-2003 was the director of Action on Smoking and Health in Great Britain, which works to reduce harm caused by smoking, cited the British way of fighting cigarettes. Currently, Bates serves as a director of the consulting agency at The Counterfactual, focusing on a pragmatic approach to sustainable development and public health:
In the UK, public health authorities are encouraging people to quit smoking on television, and if the smoker is unable to quit smoking, switch to e-cigarettes or heating tobacco systems. A complete rejection of nicotine is ideal, but not always real. Smoking cigarettes is much more dangerous than using new generation tobacco products. The level of regulation should be proportional to the degree of risk posed by a given product, he said.
In turn, Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos, a cardiologist at The National School of Public Health in Greece, previously pointed to international restrictions on the access of smokers to nicotine substitutes for cigarettes:
– Currently we are dealing with a paradoxical situation where ordinary cigarettes can be bought everywhere, and less harmful alternatives are subject to serious legal restrictions – the Greek expert pointed out.