A Public Participation Forum for the FDA Advisory Committee (TPSAC) and Federal Regulatory Policy

BBC: ‘Toxic’ risk of counterfeit cigarettes sold in Sussex

From: BBC

Counterfeit cigarettes being sold in Sussex contain abnormally high levels of cancer-causing chemicals, a BBC investigation has revealed.

BBC South East Today found some brands had eight times as much lead as normal cigarettes.

Hastings MP Amber Rudd said many people were not aware of the dangers posed by brands smuggled into the country.

A pro-smoking lobby group said the high level of taxation on legal cigarettes was driving the illegal trade

The tests follow a BBC investigation in October into the illegal cigarette trade in Hastings and St Leonards.

CSP Exclusive

No timeline set for FDA’s menthol report

By Linda Abu-Shalback Zid

CSP Daily News

ROCKVILLE, Md. — As the tobacco industry awaits a decision on menthol from the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), Dr. Lawrence Deyton, CTP director, took time to provide information to CSP Daily News/Tobacco E-News about where the process currently stands.

Deyton explained that the menthol report provided to the CTP by the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee was a requirement of the Tobacco Control Act and “just that, advisory.” That report, released in March 2011, concluded that the “removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States.”

  Menthol Update

Editor’s Note:  CRE has a different view from FDA with respect to the applicability of the DQA peer review guidelines to this proceeding.  CRE is of  the view that the intent of the guidelines was to allow the public to interact with the peer reviewers while the peer review is underway.  FDA has rejected the CRE call  for transparency and public  participation.

Update on FDA’s Review of the Science

Source: FDA

Radio Iowa

By Dar Danielson

The Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division has won a three-year contract to help the F.D.A.’s effort to cut smoking among minors. I.A.B.D. spokesperson, Tonya Dusold, says the program will make sure retailers are complying with marketing and sales laws regarding tobacco.

She says the certified investigators will go out and do tobacco checks on retailers and then send that information for enforcement and penalties to the F.D.A. Dusold says it’s part of a nationwide effort to curb underage smoking.

Source: NPR.org, INFORUM

The Food and Drug Administration has gathered a group of scientists and other experts to study flavored melt-in-your-mouth tobacco products.

The panel, meeting this week, will hear from two camps of stop-smoking advocates: those who worry that dissolvables are a gateway to smoking and others who say they help people kick the habit.

The government regulates dissolvables like other smokeless products such as chew and snuff and the warning labels are similar.

Companies can’t market dissolvables as a stop-smoking aid. Some health officials and a group of U.S. senators have called them “nicotine candy” and want the FDA to tighten the rules.