With about eight million persons dying annually due to smoking-related illness and outright quitting being difficult for most smokers, Africa and, indeed, the global community cannot afford to pay lip service to tobacco harm reduction, experts have warned.

The experts from different fields spoke at an exchange programme with the theme, Harm Reduction: Making a Difference in Africa.

Speaking on the need to prioritize harm reduction, a cross section of the discussants noted that there are plethora of researches which suggest that harm reduction is a veritable tool to lower death and diseases.