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The letter, signed by organizations in Latin America, Africa and Asia Pacific highlights the significant impact that THR has had on reducing smoking rates and improving public health in their respective regions. It also emphasizes the need for the United Nations to acknowledge and support THR as a legitimate harm reduction strategy, as they have already done with drugs and sex work.
According to the World Health Organization, tobacco use is responsible for over 8 million deaths each year, with the majority of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
The letter asks the Special Rapporteur “to acknowledge the evidence and work of the esteemed Royal College of Physicians of London, the New Zealand Ministry of Health and National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) in the US who all support Tobacco Harm Reduction as a means of ending the tobacco pandemic. The Cochrane Review regularly provides updates on the safety and efficacy of electronic cigarettes and other safer nicotine products based on scientific research and analysis.” says, Jeffery Zamora, President of ARDT Iberoamerica, a coalition of over 10 million user of safer products in Latin America.
Joseph Magero, chairman of Campaign for Safer Alternatives (CASA), a pan-African organization that advocates for the adoption of tobacco harm reduction in Africa states “The health burden of smoking is disproportionately high in the developing world. By 2030, it is estimated that tens of millions of people in the developing world would have died from tobacco consumption. Smoking in the developing world has been shown to reinforce poverty as already deprived smokers spend less on healthcare, children’s education, food, and clothes.”
Reducing the harm from tobacco includes the use alternative nicotine products that have been proven to be an effective tool in reducing the harm caused by traditional combustible cigarettes. The evidence is in reduced smoking rates in the United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand and Sweden.
The letter urges the United Nations to take a science-based approach and recognize the validity of THR as a harm reduction strategy. It also calls for the inclusion of THR in the upcoming United Nations High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases, as well as in future tobacco control policies and initiatives.
The organizations are hopeful that their letter will bring attention to the importance of THR and its potential to save millions of lives. They urge the United Nations to take action and support THR as a legitimate harm reduction strategy in the fight against tobacco-related diseases.
N. E. Loucas
Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates
+64 27 234 8463
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