Nicotine / THR - Statements from Experts
The following experts are speaking out in support of adult use of Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) products to help people quit smoking and to prevent relapse so smoking.
Tobacco Control / TC (Past or Present)
Kenneth Warner
Less Dangerous
Kenneth Warner, a University of Michigan scholar, says harm from tobacco is far greater than from vaping. A founding board member of the Truth Initiative — the nonprofit public-health organization committed to ending tobacco use — Warner has also been the president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, the senior scientific editor of the 25th-anniversary Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health, and the dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Warner and a colleague, David Mendez, built a computer model that tracks the U.S. adult population’s smoking status and smoking-related deaths. When they ran data about vaping through the model, they found that under all but the very worst-case assumptions, the benefits of e-cigarettes, which can help smokers quit, exceed their costs in terms of lives saved.
Warner says the campaigns against e-cigarettes are a mistake. The harm from tobacco is far greater than from vaping: “Michael Bloomberg did some great things for public health, but he is way off base on this.”
He is the author of: How to Think—Not Feel—about Tobacco Harm Reduction
Steven Schroeder
Smart politics but dubious public health
Steven A. Schroeder, MD was president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation from 1990 to 2002 and led the philanthropy’s $700 million tobacco-control campaign. He formerly chaired the American Legacy Foundation (now Truth Initiative), which named the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies in his honor. He is the Professor of Health at UCSF. Dr. Warner says much of the energy and money aimed at opposing e-cigarettes has come at the expense of curbing the use of smoked tobacco, which remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
“On the face of it, it’s ludicrous that we would ban e-cigarettes, but permit the sale of tobacco and cannabis. It’s really smart politics but dubious public health.” Some of the people who smoke that could benefit from e-cigarettes "are the downtrodden. The homeless, the H.I.V. positive, substance abusers, prisoners, who have no constituency politically.” said Dr. Warner when interviewed about bans on vapor products.
Scientists (No TC Background)
Academics (No TC Background)
Medical Professionals (No TC Background)
Dr. Fernando Fernandez
Better strategy than watching our patients who smoke die of oral cancer
Renowned Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon and International Lecturer, member of the Philippine Dental Association (PDA) and the Philippine College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (PCOMS). He is the past president of the PCOMS and the PDA. Fellow of the International College of Dentists (ICD), International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (IAOMS) and the Asian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (AAOMS).
“We warn our patients who are smokers that smoking is the leading cause of oral cancer and strongly advise them to quit smoking. For those who cannot or do not want to quit smoking by themselves or with currently approved methods, we convince them to switch to non-combustible alternatives,”
Political Leaders (No TC Background)
Suggestions to add to this page
The Truth Initiative, too, once embraced harm reduction. Its former board chairman, Tom Miller, Iowa’s long-serving attorney general, still argues that e-cigarettes are a “means to saving millions of lives.” Cheryl Healton, its former CEO, and David Abrams, formerly executive director of the Schroeder National Institute of Tobacco Research and Policy Studies, which is housed at the Truth Initiative, are harm-reduction advocates. So is Steven Schroeder, for whom the institute is named. Found here
Clive Bates
Michael Siegel
David Abrams good quotes from David and others
Ray N.
Bill G.
Neil B.
Lynn Kozlowski
David Sweanor
Dr. Derek Yach
- “We’ve been very clear that we support provisions that children should never vape or smoke. However, our main objective is to help adult smokers quit by making cessation aids accessible and to support adult smokers switching to approved harm reduction products. These include snus, e-cigarettes, heated-tobacco products and nicotine pouches,” says Yach. “In the long term, tackling cessation together with harm reduction is the only way to bring smoking rates down relatively soon. If today’s adult smokers quit or switch, even into their fifties or sixties, they will see improvements in their quality of life.”