New Era for Tobacco Harm Reduction in the US

We wish to acknowledge Bill Godshall - Executive Director - Smokefree Pennsylvania for his tireless efforts at educating and fighting for reduced risk alternatives to smoking tobacco.  Thank you for everything you are doing and keeping us informed...

The FDA's announcement http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm252360.htm conceding to Judge Richard Leon's ruling in NJOY v FDA https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2009cv0771-54 means that e-cigarettes, e-liquid, nicotine gums, lozenges, patches, nasal sprays, skin creams, beverages and at least several dissolvables now join cigars and pipe tobacco as tobacco products that are currently unregulated by the FDA (as long as the manufacturer or importer make no therapeutic claim).

 

The FDA stated it "intends to propose a regulation" to extend the many different Chapter IX provisions of the FSPTCA

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ031.111.pdf to ALL currently unregulated tobacco products.  But the regulatory promulgation process could take several years, and the Secretary of HHS must determine that any new regulation "would be appropriate for the protection of the public health." 

 

Although scientific evidence has found that cigars and pipe tobacco can pose health risks, there is no evidence that smokefree e-cigarettes, e-liquid, gums, lozenges, patches, nasal sprays, skin creams, beverages or dissolvables have harmed users.  In contrast, there is mounting evidence that these smokefree alternatives have helped many smokers reduce health risks by reducing cigarette consumption and/or quitting smoking.

 

The marketing and public health ramifications of Monday's announcement by the FDA are likely to include:

- e-cigarette sales will continue skyrocketing and many more smokers will switch,

- other new nicotine products (gums, lozenges, patches, nasal sprays, skin creams, beverages, etc.) will be marketed to smokers as less hazardous smokefree tobacco alternatives,

- cigarette consumption will decline more rapidly and tobacco companies will market more smokefree alternatives, 

- sales of NRT products for smoking cessation will decline significantly due to price competition from nearly identical products marketed as tobacco,

- states will enact new laws banning the sale of all tobacco products to minors (by redefining tobacco product as "any product derived from tobacco and intended for human consumption"), and

- tobacco harm reduction products and policies will be endorsed by more public health officials, organizations and advocates. 

 

Bill Godshall