[Risk reduction strategies in smoking]
Y Martinet1, A Bohadana, N Wirth
1Unité de Coordination de Tabacologie, CHU de Nancy, France. y.martinet@chu-nancy.fr
Introduction:
Around the world, due to its high efficiency in delivering nicotine, cigarette is, by far, the first device used to consume tobacco. But, as far as health is concerned, cigarette is the worst nicotine delivery system and cleaner delivery systems would be welcome. In respect to tobacco smoking, up to now, most doctors have supported the "quit smoking or die" dogma. However, some smokers cannot or do not want to completely give up the consumption of nicotine.
Background:
Indeed, while some smokers can stop smoking and, for some of them, simply switch to a nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), other smokers crave the acute effects associated with the rapid massive surge of nicotine delivered to the brain by tobacco smoke. Currently, this rapid nicotine "high" is mainly experienced by smoking cigarettes, thus explaining the high rate of smoking relapse.
Viewpoint:
Thus, for smokers who cannot totally give up nicotine, it is sound to evaluate the rationale for the use of tobacco products with possible lower toxicity than cigarette smoke.
Conclusions:
Unfortunately, this important question triggers off passionate statements, while scientific and experimental observations are still very tenuous. Furthermore, the tobacco companies, by producing new tobacco products and promoting the use of smokeless tobacco such as snus, put a constant pressure on the Public Health community.
