BY Shifrah Kwagala
Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates have raised concern of how important alternative nicotine delivery services are, if as a nation there is to be reduction in the health burden arising from tobacco harm.
According to the advocates, alternative nicotine products are of help because they majorly target addicts who can not instantly abandon the habit.
While the addicts keep using harmful tobacco, they cause harm to themselves as well as those around them through smoking. Alternative nicotine products ensure that this damage is controlled while the addicts are supported through methods like therapy in the long run to overcome the habit.
Joel Sawa, the team leader for an advocacy group Tobacco Harm Reduction Uganda noted that at such a level for people who are already endangered by addictive use of tobacco, the fight needs to be pushed toward harms associated other than the desired nicotine in the products.
“Fight should not be on nicotine but harms associated. How about you avail a first option for safety on the journey to quit?”Sawa mentioned.
Some of the alternative nicotine consumption approved by World Health Organisation include Nicotine Replacement Therapy and patches.
“For individuals with high levels of nicotine dependence, WHO also
recommends the use of proven tobacco cessation medications
including nicotine gums and nicotine patches. Find out from your
doctor or local health authority where you can access specialized
tobacco dependence treatment services and medications,” says WHO in one of it’s press releases on quitting smoking .
However WHO also highlights that of the 1.3 billion tobacco users globally, as many as 60percent have expressed the desire to quit yet only 30 percent have access to the tools to help them to do so successfully.
The Tobacco Harm Reduction advocates mentioned that one way to make these products more available to encourage addicts to quit smoking is public health providers and funding systems like the government deliberately ensuring providence of the alternative methods at facilities.
Some of the rehabilitation centers including Butabika Hospital have adopted the nicotine replacement therapy to aid addicts into quitting.
It should be noted that the nicotine alternative aids are to be used for given period of time to curb effects of withdrawal and eventually discarded when a smoker has overcome dependence.
The Uganda tobacco control law passed in 2015 nevertheless disagrees with such methods as it placed a complete ban on shisha (waterpipes), electronic cigarettes and chewable tobacco products.