I hit a milestone

[Alan Selk]

5. No big deal

Having a dependency on nicotine is not a big deal. In reality nicotine is actually a low risk product similar to caffeine in it's health effects. It's the method of delivery that is the killer. It's the smoke that kills. Get rid of that and you get rid of about 99% of the harm.

The risk of low TSNA smokeless tobacco (essentially all forms of smokeless tobacco sold in the US and northern Europe, as in snus) and electronic cigarettes are so low it shows up in population studies no worse then a minor life style risk factor. Long term studies on electronic cigarettes are not available as of yet for obvious reasons, but there is no reason to believe they have any serious long term health risk.

The biggest stumbling block to improving tobacco users health is the misinformation about smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarettes. The public at large has been lead to believe that all tobacco products have the same risk and that nicotine has severe health implications. It's the lie that keeps on killing.

With all of the low risk alternatives to cigarettes on the market it is fairly easy to make the switch with any type of motivation. All that would be needed is a public health campaign to truthful inform the people that these low risk alternatives exist and that they truly are very low risk compared to smoking. The health outcomes of people who switch to low risk tobacco/nicotine products are essentially the same as for those that completely quit.