A free self-guided introduction to tobacco harm reduction from K•A•C aims to raise awareness of the approach among a wider community of policymakers, researchers, health professionals – and adult smokers.

Recently, in those quiet moments when I am not being slave-driven by K•A•C (only joking, folks!), I have taken to rewatching the 1990s series, The X-Files, with its tagline, or perhaps mission statement, ‘The Truth Is Out There’.

In today’s era of post-factual politics and divisive and polarising social media, it’s starting to feel like the Truth has become less of an objective fact and more like An Opinion.

But ‘The Truth’ really is out there about tobacco harm reduction. By this, I mean that there is one irrefutable scientific fact at the heart of the approach: any combustible nicotine product is far more dangerous than any non-combustible nicotine product.

It’s unsurprising, however, that many people from outside the pro-THR community of health professionals, researchers and consumer activists have come to accept the constant drip feed of mis- and disinformation about tobacco harm reduction as ‘The Truth’.

For one thing, the misleading information often emanates from ostensibly credible and official international medical and public health sources. In combination with a regular stream of poorly conducted science, widely-circulated and sensational news headlines are the result. Uncertainty and doubt thrive among smokers and health professionals, who question the benefits of switching away from smoking. Many health professionals, including doctors, believe that vaping is as dangerous, if not more dangerous than smoking.

So, without any further reference to Lenin - what is to be done?

The dramatic uptake of safer nicotine products over the past decade has been a bottom-up process, driven by consumers, to which the market has, naturally, responded. To help tobacco harm reduction progress, it must enter a new phase – and a crucial part of this is to help set the record straight.

That means access to evidence-based materials and opportunities for learning for people working on the frontline, in whatever capacity, with those who smoke, or people active in fields of research with concerns about smoking – and, of course, for people who smoke and who are feeling unsure about switching to safer nicotine products.

With that in mind, K•A•C is proud to announce an initiative which builds on the seven-year operation of our Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme (THRSP). The THRSP has attracted well over 100 students from six continents, and particularly from those regions most affected by death and disease from combustible and toxic oral tobacco products. The THRSP team is throwing open the learning enjoyed by our scholars to that much wider audience of anybody concerned about the ravages of the smoking epidemic.

Understanding Tobacco Harm Reduction is a free online course available to anyone interested in reducing smoking and tobacco-related harms. A two-month pilot attracted 660 completions from participants in 76 countries and 1,100 quiz attempts, demonstrating high levels of interest.

The modular, self-guided programme is designed to be completed over two to three hours, with an assessment to test knowledge at the end. By the end of the course, those taking part will be able to understand the global landscape of tobacco smoking, define tobacco harm reduction principles, identify safer nicotine products and their regulatory needs, evaluate critiques and challenges, and dispel common myths about tobacco harm reduction.

Given the relentless tidal wave of bad news about safer nicotine products, anybody can be forgiven for being convinced that they are at least no safer than smoking. But there is an objective truth which tells a very different story - one that is driven by science, and not by financial, political or moral expediency.

The Truth About THR Is Still Out There – and the journey starts here: https://thr.academy/academy/