Let's Get Started on Tobacco Harm Reduction Right Now!
How many times have you heard someone telling you that they wanted to quit smoking? Easier said than done, smoking is a hard habit to break because tobacco contains the very addictive chemical nicotine. The body and mind gradually become addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes, much as they do to heroin or other addictive narcotics. Soon, a person needs to have it just to feel normal.
People start smoking for different reasons. Some think it just looks cool. Others start because their family members or friends smoke. Almost all adult tobacco users start before they turned 18. Most people never expected to develop an addiction. That's why it's so much easier to not start smoking at all.
Tobacco can be extremely harmful to our health. Cigarettes have a major impact on the lungs. Smoking raises your chances of developing over 50 significant health issues. Some of these can be fatal, while others can cause irreversible long-term health damage. Smoking harms your heart and blood circulation, increasing your risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and a host of other health complications.
The Harm Awareness Association (HAA) has initiated Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) to reduce the health risks to individuals and society associated with using tobacco products. Allow me to tell you a story to highlight the idea of today's article and why it's vital for you, my readers, to understand the definition of Tobacco Harm Reduction.
What is Harm Reduction and What Does It Mean?
Harm reduction is basically a strategy that opens up avenues to alternatives and better healthy lifestyle choices, whether the goal is to prevent or eliminate harmful habits or activities. Harm Reduction should, according to Harm Reduction International (www.hri.global), include a range of health and social practices.
These include, but are not limited to, smoking, drug consumption, dietary, and many other factors. This is in order to avoid stigma and to keep individuals alive while encouraging positive lifestyle changes. Instead of leaving users with very little choice, harm reduction efforts could be used to seek viable alternatives.
Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) believes that minimising the levels of harm from tobacco use among smokers should be the first priority because eliminating nicotine exposure is not always possible. Thus, the main objective of THR is to assist smokers to switch to less harmful alternatives.
The Harm Awareness Association was established as an independent association that is at the forefront of reducing harm in every aspect of life. This was sparked by the lack of locally available information on topics that are relevant to Malaysians.
HAA believe, having awareness of harm and how to reduce it is important. HAA, support the cause of ensuring the public are well aware that they have a choice – be it to quit/reduce smoking, family planning, health-related issues. What they want is for every consumer, particularly in Malaysia, to be able to make informed decisions that would minimize the harm caused by their habits and actions, both short and long term.
Remind yourself to visit www.haahub.com.my today to learn more about Harm Awareness. Stay safe, Malaysians, and I sincerely hope that this blog can assist more Malaysians in making rational choices that will minimize the harm caused by their lifestyle of people, both short and long term.
Join In The #TobaccoHarmReduction Action
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