October 15th, 2010
NEW YORK, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Chairman and Founder of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA*) at Columbia University and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., a CASA Columbia board member and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said that they strongly support a U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban on menthol in cigarettes. Earlier this year Sullivan and Califano asked the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee to recommend that the FDA ban menthol in cigarettes.
October 7th, 2010
“It is no secret that menthol cigarettes provide a distinctive taste that is preferred by many African Americans. In making a recommendation, it is my fervent hope that the committee not make a decision based on mixed information, decades-old marketing information, inconclusive studies or preconceived notions. “It would be a severe error to completely ban a product under a paternalistic justification. In the absence of solid scientific evidence, why should the taste preference of African Americans be singled out for a ban?” http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-black-chamber-of-commerce-asks–why-should-the-taste-preference-of-african-americans-be-singled-out-for-a-ban-104510869.html
October 7th, 2010
By Jennifer Corbett Dooren
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A Food and Drug Administration official Thursday questioned the responsiveness of the tobacco industry in providing information about menthol cigarettes.
During a tobacco products scientific advisory committee meeting, Corinne Husten, a senior medical advisor at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco products, said the industry didn’t respond by an Aug. 26 deadline for an agency request to provide information on the quantities of menthol and nicotine by brand from 2000 to 2010.
