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From 1 October, Australians using electronic cigarettes and other nicotine-containing vaporisation products will need a doctor’s prescription to buy them at a local pharmacy or order them abroad.
But there is another evidence-based way to help more smokers quit, which Australia has not yet acted on: reducing nicotine from cigarettes to non-addictive levels. And e-cigarettes could play an important role in this policy.
If you know someone who has tried to quit and failed, it is likely that nicotine addiction is the reason they have found it so hard. While nicotine itself is not a significant direct cause of the health damage caused by smoking, it does make tobacco products highly addictive. In 1963, lawyers for the tobacco industry wrote:
We are […] in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug.
So what are other countries doing to reduce nicotine addiction? What role could alternative nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, play, and how could nicotine be reduced in cigarettes if not managed properly? And, how much potential does a new, very low nicotine standard for cigarettes have to end Australian smoking addiction?
Read more: From October onwards, it will be virtually impossible for most Australians to vaporize, largely due to Canberra’s little-known “task force”.
Like other countries they face a world assassin
Most people know someone who has died or suffered serious health problems due to smoking.
Even today, smoking remains the leading preventable cause of premature death in Australia, killing more than 20,000 Australians each year. It also costs the Australian economy $ 136.9 billion annually.
As a result, many countries, including Australia, are setting targets to reduce smoking to very low levels. But new approaches are needed to achieve this goal.
Reducing nicotine levels in cigarettes to non-addictive levels was first proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1994. Although not implemented at the time, there has been renewed interest. for this policy.
New Zealand has recently proposed a nicotine reduction strategy as an option for its Smotefree Aotearoa 2025 action plan.
When you smoke around your pets, they are twice as likely to get cancer: Quitline New Zealand.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is also considering the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s proposal to reduce nicotine levels to “give addicted users the option and ability to quit smoking more easily “.
The World Health Organization supports a global nicotine reduction strategy and has provided recommendations for its implementation.
The good news is that it is possible to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes and that these cigarettes have already been tested in clinical trials.
The results show that people smoke fewer cigarettes when given 95% or more nicotine consumption compared to regular cigarettes. They are also more likely to quit smoking. This is because regular smokers find that cigarettes with very low nicotine levels are less pleasant and rewarding.
While it is unethical to conduct similar studies with young people who do not yet smoke, reducing nicotine levels is also expected to reduce the number of adolescents who become addicted to smoking, with promising results from animal studies.
How can alternative nicotine products help?
Allowing only very low-nicotine cigarettes to be sold would require greater investment in smoking cessation services and assistance, such as nicotine replacement therapies (including patches and gums), prescription drugs, and behavioral support from health professionals. .
Vaporization devices.
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A policy to reduce nicotine for tobacco products has also become more feasible thanks to changes by the Australian government on how smokers can access nicotine-containing e-cigarettes from 1 October 2021 .
While not harmless, e-cigarettes are likely to be significantly less harmful than smoked tobacco products. They can provide an alternative source of nicotine for those who depend on nicotine, and it has been shown to increase their consumption compared to nicotine replacement therapy.
Read more: Electronic Cigarettes: Misconceptions About Their Dangers May Prevent People from Quitting Smoking
Ensuring access to lower-risk nicotine forms is critical to policies that both New Zealand and the US consider.
But there are possible unintended consequences of a nicotine reduction policy. Many people have misconceptions about nicotine and one risk is that people may believe that reduced nicotine cigarettes are less harmful than regular cigarettes. This could reduce the motivation to quit.
Therefore, we would also need a health education campaign to encourage people to quit smoking and warn of the harms of continuing to smoke regardless of nicotine content.
Another risk is the growth of the illicit tobacco market, which should be controlled with a greater enforcement effort.
Policy makers may also be concerned that the tobacco industry is growing legal challenges. However, Australia’s successful defense of normal tobacco packaging laws demonstrates that these challenges can be overcome by the industry.
Shutterstock
It’s easier to quit smoking and keep kids from getting hooked
Michael Russell, founder of medical approaches to helping people quit smoking, famously said that if nicotine were removed from cigarettes, people “would be a little more inclined to smoke cigarettes than to blow bubbles or light sparks.”
Modeling suggests that requiring very low nicotine levels for cigarettes would give New Zealand a “realistic chance” of reaching the target of less than 5% of the smoking population. It has been estimated that 24 million deaths in the U.S. would have been prevented if nicotine from cigarettes had been reduced decades ago.
If we make tobacco less addictive, we could prevent a new generation from becoming addicted to smoking and help people who currently smoke stop smoking. And that’s good, given the high cost of cigarettes and their contribution to health inequalities in Australia.
Australia led the world in tobacco policy by introducing tobacco packaging laws. Taking a leading role in new tobacco control policies, such as reducing the addiction to tobacco products, could help us achieve a smoke-free Australia.
But does Australia have the critical ingredient, the political will, to finish the job?
[ad_2]Source: https://theconversation.com/the-missing-ingredient-australia-needs-to-kick-its-smoking-addiction-for-good-167973 [ad_2]
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