Reducing the damage brought about by way of smoking has been a cross-border well being precedence for many years, however the thought of offering grownup people who smoke with smokeless choices is not new.

In reality, it began lengthy sooner than trendy vaping units got here onto the scene. One of the earliest examples comes from Sweden, the place, within the nineteenth century, a product referred to as snus, a damp, smokeless type of tobacco positioned underneath the lip, changed into fashionable.

Unlike cigarettes, snus delivers nicotine with out burning tobacco, which means that there is not any smoke emitted. Thus, there aren’t any tar or different destructive chemical compounds contained in cigarette smoke.

Over time, the in style use of snus has coincided with a pointy decline in day-to-day smoking charges amongst Swedish males; from roughly 50% within the Nineteen Seventies (World Health Organization, 2019) (WHO) to five.3% smoking occurrence in 2023, (Business Wire, 2025) leaving Sweden very with regards to assembly the definition of a smoke-free society, completed at 5% smoking occurrence, consistent with the WHO, by contrast with an EU moderate of 24% (Eurobarometer 2024).

In 2003, Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik, motivated by way of his father’s combat with lung most cancers, advanced the primary trendy e-cigarette. His invention marked a turning level within the cross-border effort to scale back the damage brought about by way of smoking. By turning in nicotine with out burning tobacco, this industry opened the door to a brand new technology of goods designed to assist grownup people who smoke transfer to choices with decrease menace profiles. (Kim JY, 2020).

Milestones in Tobacco Harm Reduction industry

Late 1800s: Introduction and commercialisation of Swedish snus.

2003: Launch of the primary trendy e-cigarette in China.

2014 – 2016: Market creation of heated-tobacco merchandise (HTPs) in Japan and choose European international locations.

2020s: Rapid investment in acclaim for nicotine pouches (tobacco-free oral nicotine) and next-generation inhalation units with complex temperature controls.

Each successive industry has expanded the THR toolkit, offering a spectrum of choices adapted to numerous smoker personal tastes (Royal College of Physicians 2016).

Regulatory Landscapes

As with all nouveau merchandise, it’s important for presidency government to decide and prescribe strict, evidence-based guardrails to forestall early life get admission to and facilitate the accountable sale of nicotine merchandise to grownup customers best. Countries all over the world take very other approaches to regulating smokeless nicotine merchandise—and far of that relies on how smartly they perceive THR as a public well being direction. Some governments have followed extra innovative insurance policies that strike a steadiness: making reduced-risk choices to be had to grownup people who smoke, whilst placing robust regulations in position to forestall misuse.

United Kingdom (UK): Integrates e-cigarettes into the National Health Service’s smoking-cessation programmes, recognising their function in serving to grownup people who smoke hand over (Public Health England, 2018). As a outcome, the United Kingdom govt actively contains e-cigarettes in its National Health Service Stop Smoking Campaign, encouraging native services and products to enhance grownup people who smoke who select vaping as a quitting assist.

Sweden: Allows snus and different reduced-risk* choices underneath strict quality control, contributing to one in every of Europe’s lowest smoking and lung most cancers charges. (Smoke Free Sweden 2023)

Japan: Prohibits maximum vaping liquids however allows heated tobacco merchandise to flourish underneath consumer-safety pointers. (Royal College of Physicians, 2024).

United States: Implements stringent FDA oversight of e-cigarettes, with flavour restrictions geared toward lowering early life enchantment. (Royal College of Physicians, 2024).

These numerous frameworks yield instructive courses: balanced law can allow grownup people who smoke to get admission to reduced-risk* merchandise, whilst safeguarding underage get admission to and non-smokers from accidental publicity.

Generally, public working out of nicotine is converting from the one-dimensional view that “all nicotine use is equally harmful” to a continuum-of-risk style. At the very best finish of that menace spectrum are flamable cigarettes, which liberate poisonous chemical compounds when burned. The stage of menace decreases alongside the continuum in opposition to non-combustible merchandise comparable to heated tobacco merchandise, vapour merchandise, oral nicotine pouches and nicotine substitute remedies, that are normally regarded as to pose the bottom relative menace.

Conclusion

From the early use of snus in Sweden to nowadays’s complex vapour and oral nicotine pouches, the evolution of tobacco damage aid displays a cross-border effort to scale back the well being have an effect on of smoking. By finding out from previous fashions and making use of evidence-based and balanced regulatory frameworks, international locations, together with Nigeria, can harness industry to steer grownup people who smoke clear of combustion, towards probably reduced-risk choices.

Dr Puddicombe is the Scientific Engagement Manager at BAT West & Central Africa. He is a clinical physician and a Fellow of the Academy of Public Health.

References

1.Royal College of Physicians. 2016. Nicotine with out Smoke: Tobacco Harm Reduction. London: Royal College of Physicians.

2.Kim JY. Directions and Challenges in Smoking Cessation Treatment. Tuberc Respir Dis (Seoul). 2020 Dec;83(Supple 1):S1-S5. doi: 10.4046/trd.2020.0150. Epub 2020 Dec 2. PMID: 33261242; PMCID: PMC7837376. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7837376/ .

3.Business Wire, 2025. Sweden’s Smoke-Free Model Is Already Saving Lives Worldwide, Says New Report

4.The Eurobarometer survey on Attitudes of Europeans in opposition to tobacco and comparable merchandise, 2024, https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2995.

5.Public Health England. 2018. Evidence Review of E-Cigarettes and Heated Tobacco Products. Updated March 2, 2018. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/e-cigarettes-and-heated-tobacco-products-evidence-review/evidence-review-of-e-cigarettes-and-heated-tobacco-products-2018-executive-summary.

6.World Health Organization. 2019. WHO Report at the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2019: Offer Help to Quit Tobacco Use. Geneva: WHO.

7. Smoke-Free Sweden 2023. The Swedish enjoy: A roadmap to a smoke-free society. https://www.smokefreesweden.org.

8. Royal College of Physicians, .2024. E-cigarettes and damage aid: An proof evaluate (p. 106). Royal College of Physicians. e-cigarettes-and-harm-reduction_full-report_updated_0.pdf.

9. Royal College of Physicians, .2024. E-cigarettes and damage aid: An proof evaluate (p. 105). Royal College of Physicians. e-cigarettes-and-harm-reduction_full-report_updated_0.pdf.

10.E-cigarettes Market, 2024. https://market.us/report/e-cigarettes-market/

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by way of Readers and Contributors in this platform don’t essentially constitute the perspectives or coverage of Multimedia Group Limited.