Experts Call for FDA Regulation of Tobacco Products

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Smokeless tobacco might be "far less hazardous than cigarettes", but let's be careful in putting out unqualified statements like "cigarettes are 100 times deadlier than smokeless tobacco products."
It is indisputably true that nicotine replacement products (patches, gums and lozenges) are safe, nearly risk-free, well regulated (FDA), and proven tobacco cessation choices, especially when used in combination with a proven counseling or readily available quitline services.
Some want everyone in the world to believe that switching from cigarettes to smokeless tobacco products “reduces tobacco health risks nearly as much as by quitting all tobacco/nicotine.” Smokeless does not mean harmless by any means.
The use of smokeless and spitless (IE- snus) tobacco is scientifically proven to cause significant bodily harm, such as elevation of pulse and blood pressure, dental and gum disease, and oral, gastric, and pancreatic cancers.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (July, 2008), use of snus raises the user’s risk of oral cancer by 80 percent and the risk of esophageal and pancreatic cancer by 60 percent. Several recent independent research studies on snus tobacco products currently being sold in the United States show them to contain high levels of nicotine and carcinogens, thus they are highly addictive and pose significant health implications.
Other public health issues remain regarding spitless tobacco and snus. 1) they may be viewed as a safe alternative to smoking; 2) they very well are a gateway to cigarette and other tobacco use by youth; 3) many smokers will adopt the use of snus or snuff when they cannot or prefer not to smoke, and thus become dual addicted; 4) users will become addicted to an additional tobacco product with confirmed and significant health risks; and 5) smokers will use snus as a means of smoking cessation, only to find that they are not able to quit snus.
“Tobacco harm reduction” should continue to be viewed as strategy of the tobacco industry designed to enlist the support of public health practitioners and advocates. Specifically, they want the public health community help them to increase their tobacco sales by endorsing new forms of tobacco.
While tobacco companies manufacturing snus and a marginal few in public health claim that considerable public health improvement can be attained by this alternative to smoking, the long-term health implications of snus use have not been established. Moreover, the tobacco industry has no credibility when it comes to health matters.
This just released report on a "Strategic Dialogue on Tobacco Harm Reduction" loudly calls for regulation of harmful compounds in all tobacco products and regulation of all aspects of tobacco promotion, advertising and labeling.
Anyone who has not been with their head in the stuck in the sand the past few decades understands that ALL TOBACCO PRODUCTS ARE HARMFUL AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED!

Bruce Adkins, M.S., PA of WV 2:02PM February 28, 2009

Considering that many of the panel's 26 members work for organizations/agencies that have been and continue misleading the public to believe that smokeless tobacco products are just as hazardous as cigarettes, this report is a step forward.
While most smokeless tobacco products are as addictive as cigarettes, cigarettes are 100 times deadlier than smokeless tobacco products (and nicotine gums and lozenges are even less hazardous alternatives).
Switching from cigarettes to smokeless tobacco products reduces tobacco health risks nearly as much as by quitting all tobacco/nicotine, and smokeless tobacco products pose no health risks to others since they don't emit tobacco smoke pollution.
Millions of male smokers in the US, and hundreds of thousands in Sweden, have sharply reduced their health risks by switching to smokeless tobacco alternatives. And many smokers have reduced their health risks by using smokeless tobacco products as an alternative to cigarettes, as every dose of nicotine obtained from a smokeless product would otherwise be obtained by inhaling cigarette smoke.
It also should be noted that Mitch Zeller has been funded by GlaxoSmithKline (marketer of nicotine gum, lozenges and patches), via Pinney Associates, to oppose smokeless tobacco products (which compete against GSK nicotine products, and which pose just slightly greater health risks than GSK nicotine products) and to lobby for FDA tobacco legislation that was negotiated and agreed to by Philip Morris that protects Marlboro's cigarette empire from market competition by far less hazardous smokeless tobacco products.
If the panel members truly desire to accurately inform the public about the continuum of risk of different tobacco and nicotine products (as this report claims), they should start by urging their own organizations/agencies to change their policies/websites/brochures and begin to truthfully inform the public about these risks.
The panel members should also urge members of Congress to amend the Philip Morris backed FDA tobacco legislation so that it truthfully informs the public about the continuum of risk of tobacco/nicotine products, and so that it allows smokeless tobacco products to effectively compete against far more hazardous cigarettes.
Bill Godshall
Executive Director
Smokefree Pennsylvania
1926 Monongahela Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218

Bill Godshall of PA 1:44PM February 26, 2009