Over the summer we produced a science communication report for a study investigating tobacco use among LGBTQIA+ young adults that we’re currently wrapping up. The study, funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) of the University of California, continues our research interest in understanding tobacco-related inequities for LGBTQIA+ young adults. Building upon a study we conducted previously (funded by the National Cancer Institute), this study comprises 100 qualitative interviews that we conducted with LGBTQIA+ young adults to examine their perceptions of tobacco harm reduction.
Let me explain.
Yes, there are the tremendous debates that are ongoing in the tobacco field with the harm reductionists on one side and the endgamers on the other. And it’s heated. Really heated. (To be honest, I would rather hide under the bed than get in the middle of that debate.) For some in public health, applying the words “tobacco harm reduction” to currently available nicotine & tobacco products can only be tobacco industry rhetoric — and we all know that the only harms the industry is concerned about are harms to its own bottom line.
But harm reduction itself has been around a long time in public health, and there are extensive bodies of literature that support its approach. And while there hasn’t been much public health support for tobacco harm reduction in the United States, evidence has been accumulating that some tobacco products (especially combustible ones like cigarettes) are more physiologically harmful than others.
One thing we do know is that, regardless of the debates, people are already attempting to practice tobacco harm reduction. What we don’t know much about is what they are doing, or what that lived experience is like. And we should know. This is the public in public health. What are people attempting to do, how are they getting their information, what information do they want to know? What does tobacco harm reduction mean to them?
I continue to use the word harm reduction, because I refuse to let the industry co-opt and taint what is actually a long and important tradition in public health.
So, this report highlights results from our Tobacco Harm Reduction study and showcases our participants’ perspectives about what harm reduction is, and what it should be.
It emphasizes the various individual strategies that participants used to reduce tobacco-related harms.
It highlights the complex balancing act that participants described involving navigating the risks of tobacco use within a context of broader social and structural harms for LGBTQIA+ people.
It illustrates that participants stressed tobacco harm reduction as a pragmatic, nonjudgmental orientation, one that should meet people where they are, instead of where they “should” be.
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