By Eddah Waithaka
Lawmakers should be warned against a haphazard and uninformed approach that could hamper efforts to save lives and reduce the public health impact of smoking by targeting safer alternatives, harm reduction experts stress today.
The experts were responding to Health Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni announcing that she intended to “wipe out” nicotine products.
In a statement read by Dr Michael Kariuki, Secretary General of the Harm Reduction Society, harm reduction is a public health strategy that has been successfully used for years to address various health-related behaviours, including drug abuse, alcohol consumption, reproductive health and smoking. A good local example is the methadone clinics for opioid users.
The aim of tobacco harm reduction is to minimise the health risks associated with smoking by providing pragmatic, lower-risk alternatives. The WHO’s FCTC, Part 1, Article 1 (d) defines “tobacco control” as a set of supply, demand and harm reduction strategies aimed at improving the health of a population by eliminating or reducing its use of tobacco products and exposure to tobacco smoke.
Dr Michael Kariuki, General Secretary of the Harm Reduction Society, said: “Alternative nicotine products such as regulated vapes and oral pouches are scientifically proven to be far less harmful than cigarettes and are the most successful method of helping smokers to quit.
“Regulation of these products is, of course, necessary, to protect children and the youth. However, that regulation should be evidence-based and proportionate to the risks posed, after taking into consideration the smokers who need these therapeutic products.”
Recognizing the challenges that many people face in quitting smoking altogether, tobacco harm reduction focuses on reducing the negative consequences of tobacco use, with the ultimate aim of helping users to quit.
This approach acknowledges that much of the harm from smoking stems from the by-products of burning tobacco.
Joel Sawa, spokesman for the Campaign for Safer Alternatives (CASA), said: “If smokers cannot or do not want to quit, we need to help them switch to safer alternatives. The best way to save lives is to ensure that tobacco-free products like regulated nicotine pouches and vapes are affordable and accessible.
“Wiping them from the market leaves smokers with no option but to keep smoking. It’s unthinkable that policymakers are even considering indiscriminate, ill-informed and nonevidence-based actions against them without any heed to this potential mishap.”
In Kenya, we are unfortunately lagging behind when it comes to research on the oral stimulants used by 7.7% of our population. Data on the use of khat and areca nut products is scarce, and there has been little research on their health risks.
Similarly, the impact of nicotine delivery devices such as gum, patches or pouches on Kenyan consumers has been assessed in very few studies.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Nairobi, the experts pointed to a growing body of international evidence showing the beneficial effects of alternative nicotine products:
One is that researchers at the University of Nairobi have found that in Kenya there is little or no quality control of the levels of toxicants or psychoactive ingredients in oral stimulants such as khat and smokeless tobacco products such as pan, tambu, gutkha, kuber, toombak, snuff and chew, which pose significant health risks to their users, and that regulated oral nicotine products have similar levels of toxicants and risks to nicotine replacement therapies, which are on the WHO’s list of essential medicines.
Also Read:https://switchmedianews.wordpress.com/2024/03/13/pan-african-climate-alliance-and-human-rights-institutions-unite-for-environmental-justice/
The US Food and Drug Administration says Modified Risk Tobacco Products (MRTPs) “will significantly reduce harm and the risk of tobacco-related disease to individual tobacco users and benefit the health of the population as a whole” .Such MRTPs are regulated nicotine pouches and vapes which are largely used in countries such as Sweden
and the UK to assist cigarette smokers to quit.
In countries worldwide, from the UK and France to the USA, Pakistan and New Zealand, innovative alternative products are already helping smokers who had despaired of ever being able to give up their deadly tobacco habit.
Non-Tobacco Nicotine products do not contain tobacco and extensive international research has found them 95% less harmful than traditional combustible cigarettes.
Studies show that regulated modern oral nicotine products carry similar levels of toxicants and risks as nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), which are on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of essential medicines.
Sweden is about to achieve the status of being the first country in the world to become officially smoke-free after making safer alternatives acceptable, available and affordable to adults. It now has the lowest smoking and tobacco-related disease rates in Europe.
Also Read :https://switchmedianews.wordpress.com/2024/03/13/pan-african-climate-alliance-and-human-rights-institutions-unite-for-environmental-justice/
