Fumo, Beatrice (UniTorino): “Repression and taxation from the EU, so you don’t help to stop”

Rome, May 20 (beraking latest news Salute) – The strategy to fight cancer promoted by the European Commission with the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan “is correct on the theoretical level”, because it aims “to eliminate smoking and calls for virtuous behavior in eating meat or drinking alcohol. But it is one thing to focus on the causes of cancer, it is another to achieve goals. I consider it utopian to eliminate alcohol consumption, as well as to eliminate meat and think about quitting smoking overnight. with bans and taxation. It must be understood that repression and rules are not the only possible way. How do you help people who are unable to change their habits? The old model of prohibition is bankrupt “. Fabio Beatrice, professor of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Turin and director of the San Giovanni Bosco anti-smoking center in Turin, underlines this at beraking latest news Salute.

According to the expert, “it is necessary to clarify how the strategy of strict rules and taxation does not solve the problem of addiction. We need – he suggests – the promotion of culture and the concept of health, which comes even before prevention. certainties, the Italian and European guidelines on smoking are effective – Beatrice remembers – even if in reality they provide a strategy for the 8 thousand smokers who attend anti-smoking centers, but in Italy we have 12 million smokers, it means that you lose almost all of them . Then it must be said that the current strategies work only in one case out of two. What do we do with those who fail a path? Why are e-smoking and reduced risk products not taken into consideration? “.

“To think, as the European Commission has stated, to intervene only on nicotine addiction – the teacher points out – means not having experience of the problem of smoking. Those who experience addiction do not care in the least that taxes on tobacco products are increased. The British have chosen the path of risk reduction and it is working, there are the data. We are not certain that electronic smoking can help quit, but we know instead that it is useful for reducing the tobacco risk from combustion “.

“The transition of a smoker to electronic cigarettes or reduced risk devices describes the desire to have attention for their health and is an aspect that must be taken into consideration by the institutions”, concludes Beatrice.