Legacy hosted a webcasted panel discussion addressing key findings in the 2014 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on the health consequences of smoking, including how to innovatively and more rapidly end the premature deaths caused by cigarette smoking - because it is the burning or combusting of the tobacco that produces the most lethal tars, toxins and carbon monoxide that prematurely kill half of all cigarette smokers. In the report, the Surgeon General states “Death is overwhelmingly caused by cigarettes and other combustibles…Promotion of e-cigarettes and other innovative products is much more likely to be beneficial where the appeal, accessibility and use of cigarettes are being rapidly reduced.” Panelists discussed:

• Issues surrounding the elimination of combustible cigarettes (and possibly all combustible tobacco products);
• Regulations and taxes that make them less appealing, less addictive, less harmful and more expensive; and
• E-cigarettes that represent an evolving frontier, one filled with added promise to speed the demise of cigarettes, but also with potential risks because they could threaten to undermine youth prevention and indoor air restrictions and delay cessation of combustible cigarettes by encouraging dual use of both products.

This Warner Series panel discussion considered ways to speed the end of combustible cigarettes, and the role that alternative products such as e-cigarettes could play in ending cigarette smoking that prematurely kills more than 480,000 people each year.

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