EC Clinical and Medical Case Reports

Introduction

Recently a number of tobacco and nicotine products have been made available on e-commerce sites and at points of sale, which include Heat not burn products (HNB) or Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs) and E-Cigarettes or Vapes, more scientifically called as Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) [1]. The term harm reduction was initially used in relation to reducing the harm from addictive drugs but now the tobacco or Vape Industry is using the term to promote E-Cigarettes touted as cessation products as these are supposedly less harmful [2]. It is said that the novel products are less harmful so may be used if total abstinence is not possible. But the public health community believes that tobacco cessation does not mean addiction to another addictive substance present in e-cigarettes as Nicotine in chemical form. Harm reduction generally means a reduction of harm at an individual as well as community level so we need to consider the impact of an initiative on the whole population instead of a benefit to an individual so a product that harms a community can’t be called a harm reducing product for instance if a large numbers of people use tobacco products; continue to smoke rather than quitting; or continued to use ENDS simultaneously.

1. https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/e-cigarettes-vaping/whats-in-an-e-cigarette
2. https://tobaccotactics.org/wiki/harm-reduction/
3. https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/28/5/582
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4304610/#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20electronic%20cigarettes%20often,10%2C12%2D14%5D
5. https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/thailand/ncds/who-thailand-statement-on-electronic-cigarettes-as-of-20-october-2021.pdf?sfvrsn=97f44cf_5
6. https://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2019/214523.pdf