In today's GFN Voices episode, Kurt Yeo explore the crucial relationship between economics, health, and tobacco harm reduction. With a focus on South Africa, we delve into the burden tobacco places on public health, the economic challenges it creates, and how harm reduction strategies could be the key to a healthier future.
Transcription:
00:00:09 --> 00:00:18
Joanna Junak: This year's strapline is economics, health and tobacco harm reduction. How do you think these three elements interact?
00:00:21 --> 00:01:44
Kurt Yeo: I think it's vitally important, particularly from my perspective and in terms of the burden of tobacco on, for example, my country, South Africa. is that there's a number of indicators that are negative. And the basic ones are obviously health care, social costs. But in the South African context, we come from an environment, a social economic environment, that is incredibly disproportionate. We have people that are wealthy, and then we have the greater majority that are poor. And that's the poor people that use these products. So in our environment, for example, there's a lot of illicit tobacco and that then encroaches on tax revenue and introduces a whole bunch of other elements into it. So just on the tobacco front, there is a lot of burden around there. I am of the firm belief that in order to address a lot of these burdens, particularly on a social and economic factor, tobacco harm reduction is a fantastic fit. because it does address a number of these issues. So I think it's one of those very important elements that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, South Africa being so far behind in this discussion, we need to cross a number of hurdles first before we can actually realize those opportunities.
00:01:45 --> 00:01:51
Joanna Junak: And what currently causes the most misunderstanding in the field of tobacco harm reduction?
00:01:52 --> 00:03:21
Kurt Yeo: Well, that's a very interesting question because, in fact, what we've seen over the last decade is a bingo card of misinformation around these products. The most common one in my country is still, unbelievably, popcorn lung, where we see medical professionals refer to this particular disease time and time again. And because they have some kind of positional power and some kind of trust in the public, it's then taken as being gospel. And it prevents individuals from taking that step. Many people, as we well know, want to quit smoking. But there's a whole host of, as we call, bingo cards where you can just pick one out and it's misinformed and it's fed into the public. So a general basket of elements of misinformation And sometimes just cherry-picking certain elements that are not really given proper context or properly aired out to provide a real picture of what the risks are. We know that vaping and traditional or safer nicotine products are not safe, but they are safer. And that kind of messaging and that kind of language is vitally important and critical, which is often ignored or often not presented as such. So there's a whole range of those things, and I think we need to deal with that.