Skip Navigation


Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on December 24, 2008
Journal of Public Health 2009 31(1):3-10; doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdn105
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
31/1/3    most recent
fdn105v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gilmore, A. B.
Right arrow Articles by Jarvis, M. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Gilmore, A. B.
Right arrow Articles by Jarvis, M. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008, Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved

The place for harm reduction and product regulation in UK tobacco control policy



Anna B. Gilmore, Clinical Reader in Public Health1

John Britton, Professor of Epidemiology2

Deborah Arnott, Director of ASH3

Richard Ashcroft, Professor of Bioethics4

Martin J. Jarvis, Emeritus Professor of Health Psychology5
1 School for Health, University of Bath, Bath, UK
2 Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
3 Action on Smoking and Health, London, UK
4 School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, London, UK
5 Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London, London, UK

Address correspondence to Anna B. Gilmore, E-mail: a.gilmore{at}bath.ac.uk


  Abstract

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in this country and more needs to be done to reduce smoking rates. Harm reduction is one policy option. Smokers smoke for the nicotine, but die from the other toxins in cigarette smoke. Harm reduction in tobacco control aims to reduce the harm arising from nicotine use by shifting smokers, who are unable to quit, to using far less hazardous sources of nicotine, notably medicinal nicotine, in place of cigarettes. This article argues that for harm reduction to work in the UK, a nicotine product regulation authority is first needed. This would regulate nicotine products in proportion to harm to ensure that, contrary to the current paradoxical arrangements, the most harmful source of nicotine, the cigarette, becomes the most highly regulated (and thus the least easily accessible, available and attractive). It goes onto explore how a harm reduction strategy might be further developed, exploring controversies and potential pitfalls. It argues that the public health community needs to own and drive this debate because failure to do so would let the tobacco industry gain the upper hand and see thousands of more unnecessary deaths from tobacco use.

Keywords: smoking


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.