On his blog, TobaccoAnalysis, ACSH advisor Dr. Mike Siegel, professor at Boston University's School of Public Health, revisits the irony of the current tobacco harm reduction scenario. Namely, Dr. Seigel observes that anti-smoking groups continue to deny even the potential benefits of modified risk tobacco products, while major tobacco companies are actually leading efforts to introduce smokers to such products.
Dr. Siegel turns his attention to the recent purchase of an e-cigarette company by Lorillard Tobacco, an entity without any previous involvement in harm reduction. He also refers to a recent speech by Lorillard CEO Murray Kessler at the recent Tobacco Merchants Association meeting, where Kessler made these observations: Tobacco companies are starting to move toward reduced-risk, non-combustible tobacco products, while governmental and NGO groups continue to parrot the "quit or die, abstinence only" mantra, even as 450,000 Americans die annually of not "tobacco," but smoking-related diseases.
ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, who has spent her entire career in public health drawing attention to the dangers of smoking, believes the latest turn of events is something of a revolution. Unfortunately, she says, there is virtually no mainstream media coverage of this remarkable situation. Anti-smoking groups still insist that smokers trying to quit should stick to the real thing, such as FDA-approved pharmaceuticals, gums, and patches, yet they fail to mention that these cessation methods don t work 95 percent of the time.
