Dr.Farooq Ali Khan
It is a well-known fact that smoking cigarettes is harmful but not many people know what actually causes the harm.
The toxic tobacco smoke, generated upon lighting a cigarette, is the major source of harm caused by cigarettes which not only poses life-threatening diseases, but also harms the environment.
Despite allwell-known dangers of smoking, more than a billion people in the world, either directly or through passive smoking, are suffering from the hazards of cigarette smoke. Among them, millions try to quit each year but end up giving in to the desire to take another puff.
The reason why most people are unable to quit smoking is because it is not easy to give up nicotine cold turkey. Another major reason is that those trying to quit do not havethe necessary support required to let go of this habit. Nicotine, though addictive,is not the leading cause of the development of smoking related diseases.
In fact, the UK Royal College of Physicians has stated, ‘If nicotine could be delivered effectively and acceptably to smokers without smoke, most if not all of the harm of smoking could probably be avoided.’
After identifying that the burning of tobacco and the resultant smoke are the root causes of the harm caused by cigarettes, scientists and cigarette companies have been workingto find better alternativesknown as non-combustible alternatives that reduce tobacco harmby removing the harmful component of burning of tobacco from the equation, while simultaneously satisfying nicotine cravings.
These non-combustiblealternatives are designed to be smoke-free and less harmful than a cigarette as they don’t burn tobacco,which means thatthere is no emission of toxic smoke, thus there is a lower level of harm. According to Public Health England, these products are 95% less harmful than cigarettes. Some examples of such alternatives are e-cigarettes, snus, vape, and heated tobacco products (HTPs).
Aresearch measuring the level of harmful chemicals in people who used e-cigarettes, people who only used licensed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and people who smoked cigarettes, concluded that while their levels of nicotine remained much the same, former smokers who had used e-cigarettes only or NRT only for 6 months had significantly lower levels of toxic chemicals and carcinogens in their bodies than the people who continued to smoke cigarettes.
Public Health England states that compared with cigarette smoke, heated tobacco products are likely to expose users and bystanders to lower levels of harmful and potentially harmful compounds.
Various countries have included these alternatives as part of their tobacco control strategies, like in the UK where smokers are being encouraged to switch to e-cigarettes or vapes as opposed to continued use of cigarettes, to lessen the harm they expose themselves to, or Japan where there is a massive on-going shift towards reduced-risk alternatives.
As recognized by these countries, non-combustible alternatives can prove to be better than continuing to smoke cigarettes and can gradually lead towards letting go of this habit altogether. Steering clear of smoking is the goal but if you cannot quit, then at least switch to better alternatives!
