A Public Participation Forum for the FDA Center for Tobacco Products and its Federal Advisory Committee (TPSAC)

MIAMI — Six months after forming, the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association (SFATA) will make its national debut at the 2012 NACS Show. The association in the smoke-free alternatives industry came together in March and represents distributors, manufacturers, retailers, and end users with the goal to address a variety of consumer matters including tobacco regulation and its possible extension to vaporizing devices, according to SFATA.

Editor’s Note: Described below is another shortsighted regulatory regime which will increase the sale of counterfeit cigarettes and the resultant adverse health effects.

 Market  Watch

Australia strikes first in move to ban individual branding

LONDON (MarketWatch)—Cigarette makers are bracing for a potential drop in demand and a fierce price war, after Big Tobacco failed to overturn an Australian law last month calling for plain wrapping on their products.

Since then, fear has mounted that generic packaging will not only hurt the premium brands that rely on distinct branding but will also trigger an illicit, counterfeit trade that will have major implications across the entire industry.

Dr. Micahel Siegel

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ Argument that Sixth Circuit Validated Graphic Warning Labels is Not Entirely Correct; Supreme Court Will Never Affirm Sixth Circuit’s Reasoning on the Actual Proposed Warning Labels

NACS  Online

Despite a sharp increase in the number of “no” violations among retailers selling alcohol, the violation rate among the total retailer universe drops from 2011.

 ARLINGTON, VA – The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Compliance (CTP) has updated its compliance check enforcement activity of retailers selling tobacco, which reveals a sharp increase in the number of compliance checks.

 There exists, in some lawyer’s vault, somewhere in the United States, a secret memo that was authored by a tobacco company executive back in 1955. Written in the exclamatory patois of the time, it says, “Boy! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our company was first to produce a cancer-free cigarette. What we could do to the competition.”

Editor’s  Note:  The study described below alleges certain downsides to e-cigarettes.  However in addition to verifying these allegations and their continuance through time it is imperative that the resultant adverse effects of e-cigarettes be compared with those of  coventional cigarettes.  The author’s failed on this mission.

MNT

Medical News Today

Electronic cigarettes, seen by many as a healthy alternative to tobacco smoking, do cause damage to the lungs, scientists from the University of Athens, Greece, explained at the European Respiratory Society’s Annual Congress 2012, Vienna, on Sunday. Electronic cigarettes, also called e-cigarettes have also been marketed as effective smoking cessation devices.

Those readers who believe that agency regulatory cycles are determined by election cycles have a  point in the short run–but not the long run. Agencies who are funded “off budget” through levies on the regulated industry have  life cycles  of their own.  Consider the following research projects to be undertaken by the FDA.  The FDA should advise all recipients of federal  funds  that the FDA  can not use the results of the studies unless they are compliant with the Data Quality Act.  CRE has under consideration a program to ensure that the resultant studies are DQA compliant.

FDA Website