(MENAFN- Asdaa BCW) Dr. Garrett McGovern, General Practitioner specializing in addiction medicine said: "It is necessary to support the concept of harm reduction as a means of combating the health risks caused by traditional smoking.”
Medical professionals and public health experts acknowledged the increasing shift in smokers' transition from traditional cigarettes to using smoke-free products including e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, nicotine pouches, and oral nicotine.
Dr. McGovern, further added that there is a growing popularity of e-cigarettes, as one of the innovative products that contribute to reducing the risks of burning tobacco.
“Nicotine is seemingly blamed for everything and treated as the scapegoat when the real issue is harm reduction,” elaborated McGovern with an emphasis on the fact that nicotine is innocent of the charge of causing smoking-related diseases, clarifying that the main cause of these diseases is the smoke produced by the burning process, which generates many harmful chemicals.
Mark Oates, Director of consumer groups ‘We Vape’ and the Snus Users Association, expressed his concern about the public’s misconception that nicotine causes smoking-related diseases, especially with the stark reality that there are 1.1 billion smokers worldwide, which marks a major global public health concern.
Oates said no society that started using nicotine became totally nicotine-free. “We’ve seen prominent experiences of countries, such as Sweden, which have switched to smoke-free products, as they are better alternatives to traditional cigarettes based on burning tobacco”, Oates went on.
He added that if public health experts and policymakers recognize the importance of these innovative products, then they can understand that they are the only possible way to combat smoking-related diseases.
It is worth mentioning that tobacco burning is the main cause of smoking-related diseases. When tobacco burns, the temperature reaches 900-950 degrees Celsius, which results in large amounts of toxic and carcinogenic substances. While in the case of heated tobacco or e-cigarettes, the temperature does not exceed 350 degrees Celsius; leading to fewer chemical and thermal reactions, which in turn reduces many harmful and carcinogenic chemicals found in traditional tobacco products.
There is a variety of alternative smoke-free products, including heated tobacco, which relies on heating tobacco coils instead of burning them and provides the body with the desired nicotine. Also, the e-cigarettes that rely on vaporizing a liquid to which a nicotine solution is added to form a spray with different flavors. In addition to chewing tobacco products that contain nicotine, and finally, nicotine pouches, which are used by mouth as well, but do not contain tobacco. All of these products do not produce smoke or ash as they do not rely on burning.
Latest scientific researches show that the toxins and harmful substances produced by burning tobacco in traditional cigarettes are less by about 94% or 96% when switching to the consumption of heated tobacco or e-cigarettes, providing better alternatives for smokers who are unwilling to quit smoking, while the best option is always to quit smoking completely.
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