Harm reduction reflects the fact that people have a very difficult time stopping smoking, so they are looking for alternatives, ... This is furthering the harm-reduction debate. It's a reasonable debate. It pits the quit-or-die people against the just-reduce-and-you'll-reduce-harm people. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as either message. |
If you are able to successfully reduce your tobacco use you will, in all likelihood, reduce lung cancer risk. But people find it very difficult to reduce their smoking and stay reduced and, secondly, while risk is reduced, it still remains very high. |
It doesn't take much to trigger a heart attack. There is no such thing as a safe level of smoking. |
Kids are bombarded by images of smoking. It is hard to pin any one thing as the cause of something when we are dealing with a behavior this complex. |
Some of these strategies have been around for a while. What we've gotten really good at is tailoring the strategies to the individual person. |
They have achieved some public policy successes in New York. The question is whether their model can work in Massachusetts. |
You can reduce the risk, but you're not going to eliminate it, and you're not going to bring it down very far, ... Last year in the U.S., we crossed the threshold: There are now more former smokers than current smokers. People can see there are 47 million people who are now former smokers, so it's not impossible. |