ASEAN researchers conducted studies showed that the use of electronic cigarettes is less harmful than smoking. Thus, the harm reduction advocates including lawmakers, scientists and doctors said that this should convince health sectors to consider as an effective harm reduction tool or a way to quit smoking.
"Tobacco harm reduction is currently not maximized and implemented as a policy. There is much work to be done in encouraging society and legislators to adopt harm reduction in public policy," Coop-Nattco Party-list Rep. and House minority leader Anthony Bravo said in a keynote speech during the 2nd Asia Harm Reduction Forum at Dusit Thani Manila Hotel in Makati City, Philippines.
"Prof. Ron Christian Sison, a medical technologist and lead convenor of Harm Reduction Alliance of the Philippines said the results of the pioneering clinical study conducted by the team in the University of Santo Tomas, found out that vapers have lower biomarkers of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in their bloodstream, which are associated with the development of lung cancer, compared to those of cigarette smokers," as reported by a local Philippine media outlet.
"The said biomarkers are said to be relatively and statistically significant and high among those who are smoking and relatively low among those who are having e-cigarettes," Sison said.
"When I presented this, I also had a chance to meet all those public health specialists in the Philippines and initiated the establishment of Harm Reduction Alliance in the Philippines. We started with tobacco harm reduction and we are targeting expanding, to cover not only tobacco harm reduction but also other aspects such as occupational health, HIV, road safety and air pollution," Sison added.
Smoking produces toxic tar and is already linked to many illnesses. Studies even showed that it can shorten human's lifespan by an average of 10 years.
