U.S. Tobacco Harm Reduction Opposition - Déjà Vu and Nothing New Since 1994 - Brad Rodu

Opposition to tobacco harm reduction (THR) today follows the same playbook as the attack 28 years ago on my first professional medical publication proposing smoke-free product substitution for cigarettes. The THR opponent in this TV broadcast refused to acknowledge any difference in risk (“tobacco is tobacco is tobacco; “trading body parts”); grossly exaggerated the risk of vastly safer smokeless tobacco; claimed that THR was unethical; appealed to authority (“every major health organization in this country… has said that smokeless is not a safe alternative…like jumping from the 3 rd floor instead of the 10th floor”); and alleged, without support, the existence of a teen smokeless tobacco epidemic, before unintentionally promoting the specific product I was then evaluating in a smoking cessation pilot study.