A more realistic approach

Change is good, but managing the change process is equally important.

One Japanese company, for instance, is giving non-smokers additional days off from work to compensate for the time smokers spend smoking.

For a country where smoking is deeply ingrained in its culture, the Japanese know better than preventing people from smoking. I was just in Japan last week and a lot of Japanese still smoke traditional cigarettes.

Even in the airport, they allow lounges that promote electronic cigarettes, aside from designated smoking areas for traditional cigarettes.

Smokers will find a way to smoke. They should, however, be mindful of those who do not smoke. Governments, on the other hand, will just have to promote safer alternatives in the meantime

House Resolution No. 973 is a step in the right direction. It urges the Department of Health (DOH) to adopt harm reduction measures, particularly the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes or vapes), as an alternative for smokers as part of the country’s National Tobacco Control Strategy.

Authored by Rep. Anthony Bravo (Coop-NATTCO Party-list), the resolution cited the merits of harm reduction as a viable tobacco control approach as well as independent expert findings, including those of Public Health England, which concluded that e-cigarettes may contribute to falling smoking rates among adults and young people in the UK.

The Philippine Cancer Society, however, does not seem to be in tune with reality when it opposed the adoption of the use of e-cigarettes as an alternative to cigarette smoking.

It even criticized the Public Health England review for not conducting a conclusive study to support its conclusion linking e-cigarettes to declining numbers of smokers in the UK.

According to the PCS, the behavioral pattern of e-cigarette use is similar to smoking cigarettes, and the harm it can potentially present to one’s health are already strong enough reasons to regulate or prohibit its use just like any kind of commercial product.

PCS’ advocacy efforts are, indeed, laudable, but it must open its eyes to emerging evidence supporting e-cigarettes as an effective tobacco harm reduction approach and a viable smoking cessation tool.

The independent expert reviews of Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians both concluded that e-cigarettes are at least 95 percent less harmful than conventional cigarettes and are a viable smoking cessation tool.

The 2018 US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) policy roadmap has also conceded that nicotine is not directly responsible for the cancer, lung disease, and heart disease that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans each year. It is the other chemical compounds in tobacco, and in the smoke created by setting tobacco on fire, that directly and primarily cause the illness and death – not the nicotine.

In line with its comprehensive new approach, the FDA expressed its commitment to take a fresh look at e-cigarettes and other new technologies that can deliver satisfying levels of nicotine to adults who want access to it without burning tobacco.

A 2018 consensus study report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) concluded that e-cigarette aerosol contains fewer numbers and lower levels of most toxicants found in smoke from combustible tobacco cigarettes. After analyzing a range of studies and outcomes, the expert review stated that, e-cigarettes appear to pose less risk to an individual than combustible tobacco cigarettes. It also found that more frequent use of e-cigarettes increases the likelihood of smoking cessation.

The latest position statement of the American Cancer Society (ACS) released in February declared the organization’s cautious support for e-cigarettes as a tool to help individuals quit smoking combustible tobacco products. According to the ACS, doctors should advise patients to use FDA-approved smoking cessation aids that have been proven to support successful quit attempts. Recognizing that many smokers choose to quit smoking without the assistance of a doctor and some opt to use e-cigarettes to accomplish this goal, the ACS recommended that such individuals should be encouraged to switch to the least harmful form of tobacco product possible, noting that switching to the exclusive use of e-cigarettes is preferable to continuing to smoke combustible products.

Given the growing body of scientific evidence supporting e-cigarettes, it’s about time that PCS and others who oppose the use of e-cigarettes to accept the fact that while the alternative may not be the best yet, it is the better one so far.

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