For many years, tobacco harm reduction advocates have had to contend with waves of misinformation about safer nicotine products, constantly emanating from media, academia, nonprofits, and governmental or international agencies.
By portraying reduced-risk nicotine options like vapes, pouches and heated tobacco products as far more dangerous than they actually are, these falsehoods and distortions have been shown to dissuade people from quitting combustible tobacco—which causes 8 million annual global deaths.
Evidence tends to be drowned out by sensationalist claims. So in various countries, majorities of people who smoke have been misled into believing, for instance, that vapes are at least as harmful as cigarettes. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
In March, an organization that supports tobacco harm reduction unveiled what’s intended as an antidote. Knowledge-Action-Change (KAC), based in the United Kingdom, has produced a free online course, titled “Understanding Tobacco Harm Reduction.”
“There’s only one eligibility requirement, which is a desire to reduce smoking and tobacco-related harm.”
“Participants will gain a solid introduction to THR, its evidence base and its context among other long-established areas of harm reduction,” a press release stated.
The course is “open to everyone,” emphasized Gerry Stimson, KAC’s cofounder and emeritus professor at Imperial College London.
“There’s only one eligibility requirement, which is a desire to reduce smoking and tobacco-related harm,” Prof. Stimson continued. “Maybe you smoke, or someone you love does. Maybe you work with clients or patients whose tobacco use impacts their lives. Maybe you’re interested in new ways of tackling social issues.”
The course takes two or three hours to complete, its creators say, including an assessment at the end. By then, they write, “you will be able to understand the global landscape of tobacco smoking, define tobacco harm reduction principles, identify safer nicotine products and their regulatory needs, evaluate critiques and challenges, and dispel common myths about tobacco harm reduction.”
You can take the full course here—or dip a toe in by trying a few simple questions in the quiz below:
David Mackintosh, one of KAC’s directors, told Filter that he and his colleagues developed the course because they “became very aware of the interest and the demand for information about THR.”
Researchers and medical professionals were among the experts who contributed to its development. “We believe this delivers high-quality, credible information in a way that is accessible,” Mackintosh said.
He added that over 1,000 people had already registered to take the course in its early days—“without any real promotion,” as yet—and about two-thirds had completed it. “It is clear that many professionals and individuals want to understand more about tobacco harm reduction and its potential to save people from smoking-related disease and premature death.”
The course can be seen as one significant element of a multi-pronged response to a problem with glaring and severe impacts on global health.
Uptake for the course will need to be substantial to make a dent in THR misperceptions, given just how pervasive these are. Almost 80 percent of doctors worldwide—people whose job it is to present accurate health information—wrongly believe that nicotine causes lung cancer, according to a 2023 survey from Global Action to End Smoking.
But the course creators hope it will be impactful not only in terms of numbers of participants but also through word-of-mouth, when people who take the course will then be in a position to influence others in their professional and personal lives.
Happily, too, KAC is not the only organization that has made tackling THR misinformation a priority. The course can be seen as one significant element of a multi-pronged response to a problem with glaring and severe impacts on global health.
“Amongst all the noise and poor information,” Mackintosh said, “Understanding Tobacco Harm Reduction provides an opportunity for people to explore the evidence and see the potential.”
Photograph by Thea via Unsplash
The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter, has received grants and donations from KAC. Both KAC and The Influence Foundation have received grants from Global Action to End Smoking. Filter‘s Editorial Independence Policy applies.
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