SAVE SMOKERS LIVES URGES HARM REDUCTION SOCIETY

Harm reduction society and campaign  for safer alternatives CASA have urged the kenyan government to review the tobacco control act in a bid to save smokers lives.Harm reduction is a public health strategy used successfully for years to address various health-related behaviours, including drug abuse, alcohol consumption, reproductive health and smoking in a bid to minimize the health risks associated with smoking thus mitigating negative consequences of tobacco use with an end goal of assisting the

user to quit.

 

In Kenya there is not sufficient understanding  of the beneficial impact of tobacco harm reduction. policy makers risk missing the opportunity to save lives and reduce the public health burden caused by cigarette smoking due to much publicity recently about the supposed dangers of vapes and nicotine pouches.

Speaking during a press conference at a Nairobi hotel Dr Michael Kariuki founder and secretary general Harm reduction society Kenya has said safer nicotine products save lives by effectively helping smokers to quit smoking and should not be wiped out based on false narrative.Tobacco harm reduction advocates for the promotion and use of smokeless nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), such as patches or gums, to help individuals manage their addiction with reduced exposure to the harmful toxins found in tobacco smoke.

Activists have called for them to be banned with 

the taxman  threatening to price them beyond the reach of consumers.The Public Health Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni has announced her

intention "to wipe them out".This makes it difficult for a Kenyan smoker who wants to give up the deadly habit.Nearly two-thirds of Kenya’s 2.7 million smokers say they want to quit.

However only a tiny fraction succeed in doing so.

According to Dr Kariuki young people and youths  should be protected saying the tobacco initiation age is Six years and the government should put in place a roadmap for a smoke free society and nicotine replacement therapy to create awareness and curb under age use.wiping out alternative nicotine products from the market leaves smokers with no option but to keep smoking.

Non tobacco nicotine products do not contain tobacco and research has found them 95 percent less harmful than traditional cigarettes.If smokers cannot quit they should be helped to switch to alternatives by ensuring tobacco free products like regulated nicotine products and vapes are affordable and accessible.

Currently there are 1.3 billion smokers globally and cigarettes smoking will kill 50% of smokers something attributed to high cost of nicotine safer products approved by the pharmacy and poisons board.