ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross greeted staff this morning with a spirited Buon giorno! upon his return from the July 2-7 Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) conference series in Turin, Italy during which ACSH hosted a presentation on Reducing the toll of smoking-related disease and death: the case for tobacco harm reduction. The three keynote speakers included Karl-Olov Fagerstrom, Karl Erik Lund, and Lars Ramstrom world-renowned science and policy experts on tobacco and nicotine.
Harm reduction and tobacco control are global issues since there still exist hundreds of millions of smokers worldwide, and as Dr. Ross notes, The methods that are currently approved to help addicted smokers quit have an unacceptably low success rate.
Harm reduction strategies include greater dissemination of information about snus smokeless tobacco products designed to continue nicotine use but at a reduced risk of diseases, which are caused by inhaling cigarette smoke:
Currently, snus is banned in the EU for reasons having nothing to do with science or health, says Dr. Ross, but it is legal in Sweden where it has been shown to be very effective in helping addicted smokers quit. We hope to get this information out to the rest of the world and save lives from cigarette related disease, adds Dr. Ross.
