Riccardo Polosa


Riccardo Polosa is an Italian academic, who in 2018 described his roles as "Full Professor of Internal Medicine and specialist of Respiratory Diseases and Clinical Immunology at the University of Catania as well as the Founder and Clinical Director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Scientific Director of the Center of Excellence for the acceleration of HArm Reduction at the same University."
His research interests centre on cures to smoking-related diseases and alternative tools for smoking cessation. His work contributed to a 2015 paper finding that "e-cigarettes were 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes". This finding has been criticized by The Lancet. Polosa has been a consultant for the e-cigarette distributor Arbi Group Srl. According to a paper published in BMC Public Health, he is, as of 2014, the most prolific author in the field of electronic cigarettes. He is also the author of the first prospective randomized study with a control group that evaluated the and safety of electronic cigarettes on a sample of 300 smokers unwilling to quit.

Riccardo Polosa

Riccardo Polosa is an Italian Respiratory Physician, Clinical Immunologist, Allergist and Rheumatologist. He is the Director of the Institute of Internal and Emergency Medicine at University of Catania, Italy.
Over the last 10 years, his extensive contribution to tobacco-related diseases, smoking prevention and cessation, tobacco harm reduction and e-vapour products led to a scientific and evidence-based enquiry into the role of alternative reduced risk products, such as the electronic cigarettes in tobacco control and prevention.
Prof. Polosa founded the Center of Excellence for the acceleration of HArm Reduction, a unique multi-disciplinary research centre with a mission to reduce health impacts and deaths from smoking, locally and globally.
According to a paper published in BMC Public Health, Polosa Riccardo is the most prolific author in the field of electronic cigarettes.
His work contributed to a 2015 paper finding that "e-cigarettes were 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes". He also challenged claims that vaping poses a risk during COVID-19.

Education

Polosa Riccardo received his bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery from University of Catania, Italy in 1986. He thereafter pursued specialisations in Diseases of the Respiratory System and Tisiology in 1990 from the same university and Clinical Immunology and Allergology in 1994 from University of Southampton, UK.
He returned to university of Catania to pursue PhD in Internal Medicine and later joined as a Professor of Pathophysiology of the Respiratory System for the Degree Course in Medicine - University of Udine and Honorary Professor of Medicine at University of Southampton.

Career

In the year 2000, Polosa Riccardo was appointed Professor in University of Eastern Piedmont, while he continued to serve in various capacities at the department of Pneumology, Rheumatology, Immunological Diseases and Allergology and the center for Prevention and Treatment of Tobacco Smoking at University of Catania.
Polosa was appointed Full Professor of Internal Medicine at University of Catania in 2007 and was promoted as the Director of the School of Specialization in Rheumatology in 2011.
His research focus shifted over the last ten years to tobacco related diseases, smoking prevention and cessation. Polosa Riccardo is well known for his investigation of mechanisms of inflammation, biomarkers of disease activity, and novel drug target discovery in the area of respiratory medicine and clinical immunology.
He serves as an external member of the Technical Committee of the Italian Institute of Health.
He is also the National Coordinator for the Italian Working Group on “Electronic cigarettes and e-liquids” and has been recently elected Convener for the Working Group on “Requirements and test methods for emissions of electronic cigarettes”, within the European Committee for Standardization.

CoEHAR (Centre of Excellence for the acceleration of HArm reduction)

In 2018, Polosa Riccardo founded the Center of Excellence for the acceleration of HArm Reduction, University of Catania, Italy.
He was the Principal Investigator of ECLAT- first randomized controlled trial in the world about effectiveness and tolerability of e-cigarettes. The study showed that in smokers not intending to quit, the use of e-cigarettes, with or without nicotine, decreased cigarette consumption and elicited enduring tobacco abstinence without causing significant side effects.
He has been involved in the behavioural, clinical, physiological and toxicological evaluation of e-cigarettes for over 6 years and designed and conducted dozens of research studies, working with smoking cessation specialists, clinical psychologists, experienced vapers, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, chemists, toxicologists, and biologists from all over the world.
CoEHAR, aims at developing effective policy and legislative recommendations that would allow a more widespread diffusion of Reduced Risk Products, such as Electronic Cigarettes. It acts as a coordinating centre at a global level for scientific R&D, development of accurate economic models and creation of technological and innovative instruments to empower smokers in their Tobacco Harm Reduction pathway.
ECLAT has been followed by many other studies on electronic cigarettes, that made Professor Polosa becoming the most prolific author in the field, according to a recent bibliometric research.
On May 31, 2020, he launched the Catania Conversation, a science communication initiative that seeks to bring the best of science and media to the high table where policy decisions are debated and decided.

Publications

Polosa Riccardo is the author of over 300 scientific publications, most of which are articles published in extensor in international scientific journals.
In addition, Prof. Polosa is the author of over 30 chapters on national and international volumes and is the Chief Editor of two international volumes published in 2007 and one in 2009. He is also among the curators of the Italian edition of AA.VV. Macleod - Manuale di semeiotica e metodologia medica, Edra Elsevier, Milan 2014.