Learning Objectives: Describe the new tobacco and nicotine products and explain the tobacco industry’s marketing strategies for these new “reduced risk” or harm reduction products. Explain what is currently known and what needs to be investigated about the health risks of potentially "reduced exposure" products. Frame the debate regarding the tobacco industry’s health claims about new potentially “reduced risk” products and apply this science-based knowledge to strategies for smoking prevention and cessation.
Abstract: The new generation of tobacco products reaching the market present a challenge to tobacco control. New “reduced carcinogen” cigarettes – such as Omni and Advance –are touted as safer brands to smoke. New smokeless products – such as Ariva and Exalt – with reduced amounts of tobacco-specific nitrosamines are promoted as ways to enjoy tobacco “Anytime. Anywhere”. Tobacco control activists and researchers must respond to the need for meaningful information about these new products. Panel members will clearly delineate what is currently understood about the health risks of "reduced toxin" products, what is unknown, how and why the tobacco companies are embracing a “harm reduction” posture, and how activists and service providers can respond to the challenges these new products pose to tobacco control.
David Burns will provide an overview of the new products and put their development into the context of past attempts by the tobacco companies to make their products “safer”. Neal Benowitz will explain what is currently known and what needs to be discovered about the exposures and health risks of “reduced risk” products, as well the use of biomarkers of exposure in surveillance of tobacco use. Judith Wilkenfeld will explain policy implications of “reduced risk” products and the battle for appropriate regulatory oversight by the FDA. Hope Landrine will bring the discussion back to the community and individual levels by addressing cessation and prevention concerns such as whether unproven “reduced risk” products will influence former smokers to relapse or never smokers to take up the habit.
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