Studies review smoking among college freshmen and tobacco use by adolescents...(arch and Intervention. Reduced...),Health

Reduced-Exposure Tobacco Products

The use of tobacco products that have the potential to reduce exposure to tobacco toxicants is a controversial issue among scientists, policy makers, advocacy groups and health professionals. This controversy reflects, in part, the experience of low-tar, low-nicotine tobacco products introduced in the 1970s, which initially seemed to hold promise for reducing tobacco harm but instead were based on misleading claims that may have led to a negative public health impact.

After dramatic decreases in the prevalence of tobacco use that were observed over the past decades, the rate of quitting smoking has slowed, leading scientists to debate whether the remaining smokers tend to be hardened or hard-core smokers. Of the 22 million smokers who tried to quit, approximately 3-5% are successful for at least one year and at any one time, only 4-20% are seriously thinking of quitting smoking within the next month.

Not starting to smoke and quitting smoking are still the best ways to avoid the harm from tobacco. But for current smokers, this paper also suggests that the tobacco industry must be regulated: a) to avoid misleading consumers about the safety of products ( e.g., by labeling them as light or ultra-light or reduced exposure to carcinogens) , b) to prevent the initiation of tobacco use among children and adolescents (e.g., by adding flavors to cigarettes that encourage experimentation ) ; c) to be sure that smokers who would otherwise have quit do not maintain tobacco use (e.g., through the marketing of smokeless tobacco as a substitute to cigarettes in smoke-free locations); and d) to stop the continued manufacturing of extremely toxic products when the technology to manufacture less toxic products is available.

Title of Paper: Developing the Science Base for Reducing Tobacco Harm. Lead author: Dorothy K. Hatsukami, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Transd
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