Announcing a New Lecture Series on Tobacco Harm Reduction

 

I am pleased to announce a new lecture series on the medical and scientific evidence for tobacco harm reduction.

This week, I am publishing “Nicotine, Correcting Misperceptions.”  The lecture is divided into an introduction and six easily digestible segments; run time and links are below. 

Nicotine, Correcting Misperceptions

Introduction     2:45  (link here)         

Comparing nicotine with caffeine, and contrasting positive and negative effects of nicotine on the brain, in the context of addiction     3:43  (link here)

Comparing nicotine delivery among combustible, smoke-free oral and aerosol tobacco and medicinal nicotine products         14:35  (link here)

Distinguishing the health effects of nicotine from those of combustible and smoke-free tobacco     14:35  (link here)

Weighing the evidence of nicotine use during pregnancy     4:00  (link here)

Investigating how the medical facts about nicotine have been exaggerated and distorted     5:00  (link here)

Valuing long-term nicotine maintenance and tobacco harm reduction     4:46  (link here)

 

You might think that you already know everything about nicotine.  So go ahead…TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF NICOTINE by taking a short quiz!

You’ll get immediate feedback on your score, and the answers might prompt you to watch some of the segments.  Enjoy!

Note: While I originally created these lectures as a continuing medical education (CME) course (more information here), they do not presently convey CME credit, but are available to all who are interested in safer tobacco products for themselves, their families and friends.

I will publish the remaining topics soon.

Call It Whatever You Want -- Tobacco Harm Reduction Saves Smokers’ Lives

 

The U.S. desperately needs tobacco harm reduction, starting with reducing the harm from the pronouncements of federal officials.  Case in point: FDA Commissioner Robert Califf’s April 11 tobacco testimony before the House Oversight Committee.

Dr. Califf made so many false statements that I penned a response for Real Clear Health. Following are some additional observations related to his testimony.

Readers know that I don’t tolerate doctors who claim they saw many people die from the ravages of tobacco, when those patients actually died from the smoke!  Similarly, I can’t let the federal official in charge of regulating tobacco get away with mislabeling it in the same fashion as the World Health Organization and the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Califf wrongly claimed that harm reduction is an industry term.  My late colleague Dr. Philip Cole and I used that term in an article published by the American Council on Science and Health in 1995.  The Institute of Medicine, hardly a tobacco industry tool, titled a 2001 report, “Clearing the Smoke: Assessing the Science Base for Tobacco Harm Reduction (here).”

For 30 years, I’ve been saying, without challenge, “Nicotine, when consumed without the harmful constituents of cigarette smoke, is no more harmful than caffeine.”

Fifteen years ago Britain’s Royal College of Physicians, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious medical societies, agreed with me, finding, “…that smokers smoke predominantly for nicotine, that nicotine itself is not especially hazardous, and that if nicotine could be provided in a form that is acceptable and effective as a cigarette substitute, millions of lives could be saved.”

Dr. Califf should stop supporting the cigarette industry by trashing vastly safer cigarette substitutes.  That's called tobacco harm escalation.