Safer Cigarettes? Prove It, says FDA
Robert Longley, About.com Guide
Under federal regulations being proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), tobacco companies will be required to provide verifiable scientific evidence proving that their products marketed as being “safer,” really are.
In 1964, the U.S. Surgeon General officially linked smoking to cancer. In roughly the time it took them to print new labels, tobacco companies started selling “light,” “mild,” or “low-tar” cigarettes. It worked. Feeling “safer,” millions of smokers decided not to quit, new smokers went ahead and lit up and nobody even thought about “secondhand smoke.” Of course, we now know that the “lights” were no safer than regular cigarettes and you don’t have smoke them yourself to be hurt by them.
The new FDA regulations, now in the public comment phase, will create a permitting process through which tobacco companies will be allowed to advertise and sell Modified Risk Tobacco Products (MRTPs), which the FDA defines as tobacco products actually confirmed by scientific testing as being less harmful or otherwise reducing the risk of tobacco-related disease.
The new regulation is being created and will be enforced under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, a landmark law giving the FDA wide authority to regulate all tobacco products, including their sale and marketing.
Also See: What Are You Really Smoking?
To get the go-ahead from the FDA, the tobacco companies will have to prove that their Modified Risk Tobacco Products significantly reduce harm and the risk of tobacco-related disease to individual tobacco users; and, perhaps even tougher, “benefit the health of the population as a whole,” including both tobacco users and persons who do not use tobacco products.
“We are forging new territory to ensure that tobacco companies provide accurate information and do not mislead American consumers,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D., in a press release. “We are committed to stopping practices that may cause people to start or continue using tobacco products that could lead to preventable disease and death.”
It’s About the Kids: The FDA’s main concern in taking this action is to prevent the impact of misleading “safer” cigarette ads on children. According to the FDA, an estimated 4,000 youths start smoking every day and 1,000 of them become regular smokers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tobacco-related illness remains the leading, preventable cause of death in the United States — causing more than 440,000 deaths each year. More than 8.6 million Americans have chronic illnesses attributable to smoking.
