|
home >> about us >> overview
Overview
What is TobPRAC and what will it study?
In September 2006, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a five-year, $17 million research and development contract. The contract was awarded in order to determine whether tobacco products that claim or seem to be less harmful than conventional tobacco products actually reduce exposure to dangerous toxins. This contract is the first of its kind.
The research group awarded the contract, called the Tobacco Product Assessment Consortium (TobPRAC), is led by Georgetown University Medical Center (Washington, DC), and includes researchers from five principal sites:
Georgetown University
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN)
Harvard School of Public Health (Boston, MA)
Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Buffalo, NY)
Arista Laboratories (Richmond, VA)
Several small businesses.
top
Research focus
TobPRAC will examine all aspects of so-called potential reduction exposure products or PREPs. These will include smoked tobacco products, such as low-nicotine cigarettes, cigarettes with novel filters and cigarettes that heat tobacco instead of burning it. The group will also look at smokeless tobacco products and other unusual devices designed to deliver nicotine.
The group will develop new methods so that other researchers studying PREPs will be better able to carry out their investigations.
The group will also investigate how tobacco companies make claims about PREPs. TobPRAC will study how consumers perceive PREPs, product design and potentially harmful effects of these products.
TobPRAC will communicate its findings to help policymakers, the media and the public better understand these tobacco products. New products on the market will be assessed rapidly. (See examples of PREPs products.)
top
How the research sites will work together
Over the five-year study, TobPRAC will be investigating issues including:
Ingredients and emissions of new and traditional tobacco products, and their toxic results Chemical and physical qualities of PREPs (potential reduced exposure products) Behavioral and physiological changes that result after switching to PREPs Changes in toxic exposure and effects in people who use PREPs Characteristics of people who switch to PREPs in comparison to those who quit smoking Addictive potential of PREPs How the availability of PREPs might discourage smokers from quitting, or encourage former smokers and those who never have smoked to start Developing models that assess risk for individuals and populations.
To accomplish these and many other goals, TobPRAC researchers will work in teams.
Georgetown University, the University of Minnesota, and other sites will conduct clinical studies of volunteers who will use PREPs, as well as traditional cigarettes. The researchers also will develop molecular markers of toxic exposure and determine the risk of cancer and addiction.
Arista Laboratories and Georgetown will analyze how toxic the products are.
Arista Laboratories and Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) will study how the products are designed to better understand how this may reduce toxins.
Harvard School of Public Health and Roswell Park Cancer Institute will study the perceptions consumers have about the products. They will study who uses them, and will examine tobacco company documents, including testing reports and patents.
All the sites will work together to understand how exposure to tobacco toxins impacts individual risks and harm in the population.
top
What are PREPs (potential reduced exposure products)?
According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) definition of PREP, a product is harm reducing if it lowers total tobacco related mortality and morbidity. The IOM considers a PREP harm reducing even though using the product may involve continued exposure to tobacco-related toxins.
Also according to the IOM, the major factor in the belief that reducing harm can possibly reduce risk in individuals and populations is based on data. The data indicates that quitting smoking reduces disease. Former smokers have lower risks of tobacco-related morbidity and mortality compared to current smokers. But what is unknown is how much the exposure needs to be reduced to be meaningful. Also some individuals might benefit from PREPs, but others who would have been lifelong quitters will not. This would result in more population-wide disease.
To find additional information about harm reduction, visit:
top
|
