Despite rising smoking rates Mexico still heavily restricts access to safer nicotine products, leaving few options for Mexico's. But could healthcare professionals be the key to stem Mexico's smoking dilemma? Marcela Madrazo joins us to highlight this alternative approach to THR in Mexico.
Transcription:
00:04 - 01:17
[Joanna Junak]
Hello and welcome. I'm Joanna Junak and this is GFN News on GFN.TV. In today's program, Marcela Madrazo will talk about the state of tobacco harm reduction in Mexico and the challenges caused by widespread misinformation around the topic. Marcela leads the Informed Vaping Initiative, serves as President of Procuring Health Without Borders, and coordinates the Multiprofile Alliance for Smoking Cessation. Her work focuses on reducing the risks and harms of smoking in Mexico and Latin America, and on preventing the stigmatization and criminalization of nicotine use. Hello, Marcela, and thank you for joining us today. Let's start with your work in tobacco harm reduction. Which projects in this field have you found the most challenging?
01:18 - 03:03
[Marcela Madrazo]
Well, I would say that in Mexico, the most challenging, the greatest challenge we have is all the misinformation there is around THR. Many people don't even know what it means. They are not familiar with it. And there are a lot of misinformation. around the harm reduction tools. I mean, how effective they are, what risk do they really represent to the consumers? So we have been focused the last three years precisely on working around this misinformation to try to provide our population mainly, well, not only in Mexico, but in America, mainly, of course, adult population about what these tools are, how they can help them, to stop smoking in case they want to stop smoking and how they are not free risk. There is nothing risk-free in public health, but they are substantially less risky than combustible tobacco. So that has been the main challenge. We've done case studies of Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, and we will be working with Argentina Paraguay, Peru and Panama. Because when we present the case studies, we go to those countries, we present them there and then we have a lot of media coverage and it helps us to send key messages to the population.
03:05 - 03:18
[Joanna Junak]
You identified misinformation about THR as a major challenge. How is the organization Movimiento Provecino working to increase public awareness of theatre in Latin America and Mexico?
03:19 - 08:36
[Marcela Madrazo]
Well, Movimiento Provecino is working not only in Mexico, we are working regionally. We've been to Brazil, we've been to Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, and for the next two years we're planning to go to Argentina, Panama, Peru and Paraguay. It is important because when we go there and we present the case study of each country, how are they regulating combustible cigarettes, how they are regulating HDR devices, we have a lot of media attention. And after that, we have interviews. So it helps us to send the messages. that we want to send to the population. Now, in Mexico, we've been very active in social networks, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X. We've reached more than 5 million people in the last two years. And we also have our own podcast we've had last year. Every week we have a podcast. And there it's interesting because we don't only interview doctors or toxicologists or media or psychologists. We also interview people that have been able to quit smoking using a drug. harm reduction devices, and we also interview family from those people, how they have seen the change in their father, mother, whatever, grandmother, grandfather, sister, brother, friend, whatever, health, and how the health of the family has been also improved since they stopped smoking at home. We've reached more than 100,000 beneficiaries. And since it is a podcast, the name is Informed Vaping, a free and borderless space. What we want is anybody that has anything to say about it, they can come forward and we have these interviews. So we've been very active. We've also had training to media and to doctors because we feel they are the best speakers we can have to talk about harm reduction. In Mexico, harm reduction is a concept that is not present in any health public policy. So it's not well known even around doctors. Before we started with our podcast, we did a survey to sense how people, how much knowledge there was or misinformation there was. And for a surprise, more than 70% of those who participated said that nicotine causes cancer. and that vaping produces health effects in your lungs. You have water in your lungs, and you even have fungus on your lungs. So we have to work in two roles, let's say. One is clarifying information, and the other one is providing information so people can make a wise choice based on scientific evidence. So that's where we've been working a lot. Training and social networks and our podcast. So education is a key word here. Education, education and education. It's the only way you can go against misinformation and you can provide the latest information. Because every day there is new data, there are new studies. And we have to provide that information to the population in general and to the doctors branch. particularly oncologists, cardiologists, pneumologists, but as I said, not only specialists. We are also training doctors that are on the first stage of contact with patients to provide them this information because there's where you capture 80% of the patients on first stage. And there's where we think that they could provide them information as to alternatives to quit smoking. That do not mean abstain because abstain does not work. I mean, we know it doesn't work. So if the doctor tells you, oh, Joanna, stop smoking and that's it, you will not stop smoking. You will go back one year from today and you will say, I am still smoking and maybe you're even smoking more than you used to.
08:38 - 08:45
[Joanna Junak]
And moving on, how does tobacco harm reduction connect to current tobacco control policies in Mexico?
08:45 - 12:00
[Marcela Madrazo]
No, there's no connection. Nobody in the executive branch or the legislative branch, they don't speak about harm reduction. It's a concept that maybe they know about it, but they don't talk about it. In Mexico, it is interesting. We were the first country to sign the FCTC, the first one in the world. We have a local law. It's the local... I mean, it's the general law for tobacco control since 2008. But the prevalence of smoking in Mexico is still growing. We went from 70.4 prevalence, which means 14 million smokers, to a 19.6 prevalence, which is almost... 17 million adults smoking in Mexico, and 1 million youngsters, people that go from 12 to 19 years old. So besides, I mean, in spite, I would say, in spite of all the efforts for tobacco control, there are more people smoking in Mexico. The age where youngsters start smoking is becoming shorter. Now they start at 10, 11, 12 years old. before it was at 15, 16 years old. So what's missing in Mexico? In Mexico, what we don't have are alternatives that have proven to be safer, not innocuous, not safe, not risky, because there is nothing risky, but that have proven to be much less harmful. But in Mexico, we don't have these alternatives. I would say that in the survey I referred to before, 85% of the people that participated said that they don't know of any cessation clinic to stop smoking in Mexico. And they don't know of alternatives to stop smoking, but to keep consuming nicotine. In Mexico, we don't have this net to support the people that smoke that want to quit smoking or need to quit smoking because the doctor has already told them if they don't quit, they're going to end up with a heart attack or We don't have this net to support, to conduct, to advise smokers in Mexico. So there is no relation. I mean, it's painful, but that's the way it is. There is no link. between harm reduction and cessation. And that's maybe why, because in spite of smoke-free places and the raise of taxes, well, all the things that are in Empower, in spite of all of that, people have not been able to quit smoking because we don't offer them alternatives.
12:02 - 12:14
[Joanna Junak]
So given the lack of support and safer alternatives for smoking, who do you think should take the lead in advocating for better harm reduction options in Mexico?
12:16 - 14:01
[Marcela Madrazo]
We've been very, very incisive in saying that doctors are the ones that have to speak up. If it's patients, they were going to say, well, I mean, they're smoking, let it be, let it be. If it's like people that sell babes, they say, no, this is their business. Of course they want to sell babes. So it has to be doctors along with patients saying, that have to speak up and say, this is killing us. We know it's killing us. We cannot stop because our body is demanding nicotine. You have to provide us with alternatives. In Mexico today, we don't have medicines. You cannot buy patches. It's not that they are forbidden. They're not available. Because even the producers are not interested in this market because it's not an attractive market, let's say, for them as to business, to make business. So there are not alternatives. And the alternatives that were there, that were babes and e-cigarettes and compressed tobacco, right now they have been banned. So what are the alternatives that they are going to provide the population if, as I said, we don't have clinics, the station clinics where people can go and have, well, the sessions they need to have in order to be able to stop smoking. We don't have this.
14:03 - 14:21
[Joanna Junak]
Thank you, Marcela. That's all for today. Tune in next time here on GFN TV or on our podcast. And make sure to check out our social media pages for the latest updates on this year's Global Forum on Nicotine Conference. Thanks for watching or listening. See you next time.