September 8 news, according to foreign reports, highly regarded tobacco control academics are calling for an e-cigarette policy agenda that balances restricting youth use with promoting e-cigarette products as a tool to help adult smokers switch to safer nicotine alternatives .

Their agenda — which includes making vaping easier and cheaper than cigarettes, but also reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes and banning a range of flavored vaping and tobacco products — is sure to draw criticism from anti-nicotine fanatics and tobacco harm reduction supporters.

Kenneth Warner, Cliff Douglas and Karalyn Kiessling of the University of Michigan and Alex Liber of Georgetown University ) admitted in a brief paper published in Health Affairs that many Americans remain confused about relative health.

The dangers of nicotine use, and public information surrounding the substance tends to focus more on deterring teen use than educating adults. Smoking remains the number one cause of preventable death in the United States.

The authors describe the debate in part as a social justice issue, as Black Americans disproportionately suffer from smoking-related mortality and the condition constitutes a condition for Americans with lower education and income, members of the LGBTQ community, and people with mental health. A disproportionate share of the smoking population.

"We need to find policies that simultaneously address the broadly shared dual goals of preventing youth vaping and increasing adult smoking cessation."

Warner described the article as an attempt to find some intermediate policy ground when it comes to vaping.

“U.S. policy on vaping has focused on measures aimed at reducing teen vaping, including taxing e-cigarettes and restricting flavors,” Warner told Filter. “Unfortunately, some measures may backfire. For example, reducing e-cigarette taxes for youth vaping may also increase child smoking rates if matched with at least comparable cigarette tax increases. Likewise, some of these youth-oriented taxes appear to be increasing To reduce vaping use among adult smokers, increase their smoking rates and reduce smoking cessation. We need to find policies that simultaneously address the broadly shared dual goals of preventing youth vaping and increasing adult smoking cessation.”

"We call on our colleagues to focus on these two widely shared tobacco control goals: keeping tobacco and nicotine products out of the hands (and mouths) of young Americans forever, and helping as many adults as possible shed their lethal allegiance to burning tobacco products. ” wrote the co-authors. They chose to focus on the "Four Ps," borrowed from a 1960s textbook designed to help companies develop marketing plans: product, price, location, and promotion.

In their recommendations, they advocate for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to implement its plan to reduce nicotine levels in combustible cigarettes to effectively zero. It's a controversial move for many tobacco harm reductionists, some of whom believe it will encourage people to smoke more to get the same amount of nicotine and boost the illicit market.

As the authors point out, it could also face legal challenges from tobacco manufacturers. They added that the agency's mandate would be best if accompanied by regulations that ensure the availability of alternative products, such as e-cigarettes.

They also point out that cigarettes and e-cigarettes are economical alternatives, and as such, states and the federal government should impose high excise taxes on cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products and more modest excise taxes on e-cigarettes.

By logic, adults are more likely to switch to safer alternatives if they are much cheaper.

They insisted that the government enact laws that would only allow e-cigarettes and tobacco shops to sell nicotine products, and in another highly controversial proposal, proposed a ban on all flavours in combustible tobacco products, as well as a ban on all flavours other than tobacco and menthol. All e-cigarette flavors, and possibly a relatively small selection of other flavors, have clearly adult-oriented marketing that the FDA deems appropriate to protect public health—a standard that now seems to be ubiquitous in the tobacco control community, meaning providing adults with more Safe choice instead of introducing nicotine to a new generation.

Harm reductionists point out that most adults who switch to e-cigarettes find that flavors make them more likely to do so.

While ban-oriented groups like the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK) have long pushed for a ban on flavors, harm reductionists point out that most adults who switch to e-cigarettes find that flavors make them more likely to do so Do.

Some studies have shown that banning flavorings can have adverse effects, such as attracting more teens to smoke. The FDA has authorized only a few large manufacturers of vaping products through its constantly under fire PMTA process, but has not authorized any flavored products.

In addition, the authors recommend banning lifestyle advertising around e-cigarettes, limiting communications to transition messages along the risk continuum. They also want to require state and local governments to develop strict licensing policies and practices that limit youth exposure to all tobacco and nicotine products, and require clear communication about relative risks across the nicotine risk continuum — including accurate information to adults about switching potential benefits, and a warning to teens that no nicotine-containing product is completely safe to use and that everyone can become addicted.

Although the paper contains a number of proposals that will be hotly debated, at least some of its conclusions are likely to find relative agreement among harm reductionists.

"Public ignorance that the risks of nicotine and e-cigarettes are substantially lower than the risks associated with smoking makes it possible that the number of smokers trying to quit smoking with e-cigarettes is less than the public (especially smokers) who are more aware of e-cigarettes. situation," argues the co-authors. “Conversely, because smoking cessation significantly reduces the risk of disease and death, the toll from smoking may be higher than in settings where e-cigarette use is more acceptable to quit. Excessive focus on risk can harm public health."