Foundation for a Smoke-Free World's Statement on "Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General," Released on January 23, 2020

NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Surgeon General has led global efforts to end smoking for over 50 years. The latest report, focused on smoking cessation, is long overdue. Each year, tobacco use kills 7 million people worldwide. Improving adult cessation rates is the only way to reduce death and disease from tobacco within the next 15 years.

For the past 30 years, the Surgeon General has failed to focus on smoking cessation. The World Health Organization has, in fact, documented that there has been little progress in providing smokers with affordable, accessible, and effective cessation options. Meanwhile, the number of smokers has grown to 1 billion worldwide.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, almost 70% of smokers in the U.S. want to quit and nearly half of all smokers have tried to quit in the last year. Unfortunately, only about 4% of smokers will be successful. The 2018 EY Parthenon report, "Smoking Cessation Product and Services: Global Landscape Analysis," found that solutions currently on the market are successful in helping only a small percentage of smokers quit, and that there are very few novel solutions in the pipeline. Failure to expand access to effective cessation tools—including medications, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and e-cigarettes—hampers progress toward ending the harms of tobacco.

Michael Russell, a leading cessation researcher and inventor of nicotine gum, famously said: "People smoke for the nicotine but die from the tar." NRTs, such as gums and skin patches, were therefore developed as way to deliver nicotine without deadly tar. These innovations were the first tobacco harm reduction products.

Other reduced risk nicotine products (e-cigarettes, snus, nicotine pouches) also have roles to play in ending smoking and are more readily embraced by smokers as alternatives to cigarettes than NRTs. Research has shown that when smokers switch to these products, they reduce their health risks. Furthermore, clinical trials have shown that e-cigarettes are a more effective means of quitting cigarettes than NRTs.

Creating a smoke-free world will require more than compassion and education. It will require innovation. We are supporting scientists and researchers around the world to identify novel therapies that will increase quit rates. A variety of options must be available to smokers because there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Tailored approaches to cessation are required, for example, to help smokers who live in low- and middle-income countries and those with mental health conditions. We hope that this Surgeon General's report will spur much-needed innovation.

About the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, Inc.

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is an independent, US nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with the purpose of improving global health by ending smoking in this generation. The Foundation supports its mission through three core pillars: Health, Science, and Technology; the Agricultural Transformation Initiative; and Industry Transformation. The Foundation's Health, Science, and Technology work complements ongoing tobacco control efforts and focuses on countries where most smokers live, with a smoker-oriented agenda to accelerate quitting and switching to reduced-harm products. The Agricultural Transformation Initiative aims to diversify tobacco-dependent economies; and the Foundation's Industry Transformation efforts focus on attaining change within the entire global tobacco industry and nicotine ecosystem.

The Foundation has received contributions from Philip Morris International (PMI) in 2018 and 2019 each in the amount of US$80 million. PMI has pledged to contribute $80 million annually for the next ten years. Under the Foundation's Bylaws and Pledge Agreement, PMI and the tobacco industry, generally, are precluded from having any control or influence over how the Foundation spends its funds or focuses its activities. The Foundation's acceptance of the contributions does not constitute an endorsement by the Foundation of any of the pledger's products.

For more information about the Foundation, please visit www.smokefreeworld.org.

Contact:

For Media:
Nicole Bradley
Vice President of Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

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