What’s The SCOHRE?
The founding of the International Association on Smoking Control & Harm Reduction was announced at the closing of the 3rd Scientific Summit
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by Dave Cross
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The virtual Summit grew further in its third year with additional scientific bodies joining the Summit organisers - The Department of Biochemistry-Biotechnology at the University of Thessaly, the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Immunology at the University of Patras linked up with the Department of Public & Community Health at the University of West Attica and the 2nd Cardiology Department at University Hospital Attikon.
The online conference featured notable luminaries such as Clive Bates and a host of others talking about everything from toxicology and aerosol chemistry to regulatory issues and bioethics.
“The doctor’s dilemma: Providing guidance on alternative smoking products to adult smokers amid controversy and change” discussion was chaired by Dr. Dimitri Richter, where Dr. Peter Harper, a British oncologist, said that tobacco control is “a political and scientific discussion. Although scientific evidence show that smoke-free products release much lower levels of chemicals compared to combustible cigarettes, many countries recommend to being treated with the same restrictions to combustible cigarettes.”
The acknowledgement of a political aspect to the debate is part of the driving force behind the setting up of SCOHRE, and a vote was held to endorse the Association Founders’ Declaration at the closing of the summit.
The Declaration states: “Nicotine has an addictive potential but plays a minor role in smoking related mortality. In an epistemological climate where perceptions on the effects of nicotine is inconsistent with medical consensus, our purpose is to provide stakeholders with science-based and balanced information on the effects of nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive substance. However, it is been used successfully in smoking control and smoking cessation, and it could be used in smoking harm reduction.
“Smoking cessation and prevention remain the most impactful and cost-effective interventions in medicine. Healthcare and public health professionals need to continuously raise awareness to every smoker and to the population as a whole about the adverse effects of smoking.
“In an era of accelerating progress and technological innovation, new approaches emerge based on potentially safer alternatives than cigarettes, for those smokers, who for various reasons cannot give up smoking completely, i.e. Tobacco Harm Reduction.”
They say the summit, “undoubtedly proved that there is a growing interest among experts in novel approaches towards tobacco control and that there is an ongoing discussion that limiting the negative effects of smoking can be also achieved by tobacco harm reduction.”
SCOHRE is throwing its academic heft behind promoting harm reduction strategies and marks a change in direction for some who previously stated they were solely researchers – not advocates.
They say that, “we need to acknowledge that tobacco harm reduction debate is still at an early stage,” but many vapers might feel this isn’t the case, being a decade in to vaping and facing possible WHO-led restrictions in the next iteration of the Tobacco Products Directive.
“The debate on tobacco harm reduction is still facing a lot of opposition from some of the key actors, including policy and regulatory bodies. We need to find a way of establishing a constructive dialogue to discuss concerns and challenges.”
SCOHRE plans on focussing on four key pillars:
- Scientific evidence, incl. sharing and publicizing the latest scientific data, identifying research gaps, independent verification of the industry data
- Behavioural aspects – focus on smokers – what are the needs of those who want to quit smoking, as well as how to effectively help those who are not willing to quit
- Policy recommendations
- Establishing a dialogue with policy experts and regulators at international, EU and national level
The politicisation of the debate has finally forced some of these big hitters to take on a more active role, but is this going to be too late? Regardless, their contribution will be welcomed as Europe moves towards TPD3.
Related:
- The 3rd Scientific Summit for Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR): Novel Products, Research, and Policy – [link]
- The Declaration of SCOHRE’s Founding Members – [link]
Photo Credit:
Image by Phillip Kofler from Pixabay
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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