SCOHRE - International Association on Smoking Control & Harm Reduction

Let more lower risk products in the market to make cigarettes obsolete was a strong message from the webinar! Karl Erik Lund SCOHRE - International Association on Smoking Control & Harm Reduction Vice-President in his speech, pointed out that in today’s societies "we get marginal effects from intensifying the traditional weapons of #tobacco control. Smokers have changed, while our strategies remain unchanged". The core elements of the newer Tobacco Harm Reduction strategy are availability of alternatives to cigarettes. As he put it, "Let more lower risk products in the market to make cigarettes obsolete." As Lund put it, ‘pragmatists’ believe that our main goal is to reduce smoking related diseases; there are huge risk differences between products, and novel products may outperform cigarettes and put them out of the market. "#publichealth Policies are about reducing risk" said Theoklis Zaoutis, President of the National Public Health Organization of Greece, opening his speech. He focused on the need to monitor the epidemiology of smoking of conventional cigarettes and alternative products use; this way, reliable data will be obtained to generate effective educational campaigns. Regarding #tobaccoharmreduction policies, he acknowledged that risk reduction is included in most public health policies, He concluded that "Harm reduction policies always face resistance," as in known cases of attempts to reduce salt and sugar, that received heavy criticism. Professor Andrzej Fal explicitly stated: "Our aim should be to stop people from buying cigarettes, or if we have two products of different risk to make the one with less risk more available!" As he has also previously stated "Less harm, less tax." "We should use the fiscal tools―he said―because fiscal prevention has been proven cost effective in the UK, Sweden, and the US. Those Ministers of Finance who are afraid of losing excise tax looking at next year’s budget simply neglect the long-term impact on the healthcare budget. The lost excise tax in next year’s budget is simply peanuts…" he concluded. Daphne Kaitelidou addressed the issue of the need to have "Better informed citizens and more data to drive behavioural change. More data systematically collected and shared with all interested parties and should be integrated into daily clinical practice. She said that we need to monitor the smoking habit to design evidence-based tobacco control policies and apply cross-sectoral collaborations between governmental, national, and international stakeholders to address the challenges. In the discussion the moderator Faropoulos John referred to the upcoming tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to be held in Panama. He stressed that there should be a common EU approach before COP10 with the use of the good results achieved by countries like Norway or Sweden, which apply tobacco harm reduction policies. #people #data #healthpolicy

“Towards a Smoke-Free World” webinar! Governments around the globe formulate visions “Towards a Smoke-Free World”. The European Commission aims to achieve a tobacco-free Europe in 2040. This is part of Europe's Beating Cancer Plan. However, there are many challenges ahead. Progress and key challenges are the issues that will be covered in the webinar. 👉   Are European policies in line with the goal set of a Smoke-Free Europe? 👉   Adopting a holistic approach in public health, how can we complement our #publichealth strategies to reach a #smokefree World? 👉   How fiscal tools can contribute to tackle the spread of smoking? 👉   How can we secure #better #informed citizens and what de we need to do to drive #behaviouralchange ? 👉   Do we need more data of tobacco and #nicotine products for paneuropean monitoring on use? Take a look at our high quality speakers: Webinar moderator Faropoulos John, Chief Executive Officer Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Outcomes Research (CLEO) Webinar panelists: Andrzej Fal, President, Polish Society of Public Health; Head, Department of Allergy, Lung Diseases & Internal Medicine, Central Clinical Hospital, Ministry of Interior; Director, Institute of Medical Science, UKSW, Poland Daphne Kaitelidou, Professor/Department of Nursing, EKPA, President of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Health ΟΔΙΠΥ (ODIPY) Οργανισμός Διασφάλισης της Ποιότητας στην Υγεία Karl Erik Lund, SCOHRE - International Association on Smoking Control & Harm Reduction Vice-President, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway Theoklis Zaoutis, President of the National Public Health Organization of Greece There is a need to step up the efforts towards a new broader approach to #smokingcontrol policies. SCOHRE is an International scientific Association of independent experts on Smoking Control & #harmreduction, who seek an open and constructive dialogue to help come up with a new approach to #smokingcontrol policies. Register here! https://lnkd.in/d2d-4BKa