The newest likely victim of the travesty that is the proposed FDA tobacco regulation bill is a dissolvable nicotine-delivery system developed by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company that could be a valuable cessation device. The product s detractors, such as Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, are calling it tobacco candy that is marketed to children: For years, tobacco companies have deceived consumers and marketed products to children continually trying to replace the 400,000 customers they lose each year to tobacco-related deaths and illnesses.
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross takes issue with that assertion: This product is unlikely to come with any significant health risk certainly far less than those caused by smoking and it could help people quit smoking. That he would associate it with deaths caused by the product it replaces shows that his motivations are entirely political. The FDA bill will impose regulative barriers that make it difficult for innovative products such as this to enter the market, and ACSH staffers dread the disastrous public health effects that will inevitably result from restricting viable cessation alternatives under the false pretext of protecting the children. Dr. Ross notes: "While continuously harping on the threat to our children and our kids, these hypocritical, politically-motivated allegations ignore the 45 million addicted adult smokers Sen. Brown obviously adheres to the quit or die approach to cigarette addiction
