Tobacco Harm Reduction: What does it mean?

2007 Symposium on Tobacco Science and Health

March 6-8, 2007

Galt House Hotel & Suites

141 North Fourth Street Louisville, KY 40202

Hosted by:

Institute for Science and Health

Tobacco use continues to pose an enormous health threat both in the US and abroad. Currently over 46 million people in the US smoke, nearly double the nations health goal indicated in Healthy People 2010. To combat the health burden resulting from sustained tobacco use there is renewed interest within the public health science community in evaluating potential harm reduction strategies.

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of new potentially reduced-exposure products (PREPs) that claim to be less harmful and/or less addictive when compared to conventional tobacco products. Despite the theoretical benefits of these types of products, there is limited and inconsistent scientific evidence to support any conclusions pertaining to harm reduction for tobacco users. Essentially, little is understood about PREP toxicity and the potential impact on individual and public health. In addition, smokeless tobacco products have been suggested as a useful harm reduction strategy based on evidence from Northern Europe. It is however not clear whether these data can be transposed to elsewhere throughout the globe.

Because of this gap in knowledge and the need to identify and develop bona fide tobacco harm reduction strategies, the Institute for Science and Health is hosting a Symposium titled Tobacco Harm Reduction: What does it mean? The key question that needs to be addressed is "Do both smoked and smokeless potential reduced exposure products, including medicinal pure nicotine-containing products, provide a real and tractable method for reducing harm to conventional tobacco users?"

The general topics for presentation and discussion are in complete alignment with goals and objectives of a recent extension of a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) from the National Cancer Institute and National Institute on Drug Abuse titled Testing Tobacco Products Promoted to Reduce Harm (PA-06-361) , and an October 2005 research seminar organized by the European Respiratory Society titled Tobacco Smoking: Harm Reduction Strategies . These topics include: 1) assessment of the toxicity, and differential toxicity of various PREPs; 2) assessment of smokeless tobacco-based products as a harm reduction strategy; 3) validation of current candidate disease-specific surrogate biomarkers; 4) development of new biomarkers of harm that accurately reflect disease mechanisms; and 5) assessment of behavioral changes that accompany use of new smoked and smokeless tobacco products and how these changes may affect the harm reduction potential of PREPs.

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Symposium Abstract Booklet

Click here to download the Symposium Abstract Booklet.

Support for this conference provided by:

Institute For Science And Health