Federal officials used flawed statistics to justify a ban on flavored cigarettes last year, claims Dr. Joel Nitzkin, chair of the Tobacco Control Task Force for the American Association of Public Health Physicians. At a Sept. 22, 2009, press conference, Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard Koh claimed the ban “will break the cycle for 3,600 young people who start smoking daily."
Dr. Nitzkin explains why this statistic — the only one issued by the FDA as to the percentage of children and youth who will benefit from the ban on non-mentholated candy flavored cigarettes — is inaccurate:
“Dr. Nitzkin points out what a complete exaggeration the FDA has made out of their single regulatory policy to ban candy-flavored cigarettes,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “It’s far more likely that the ban of candy-flavored cigarettes will save zero lives from smoking-related diseases than the outrageously inflated figure given by Dr. Koh, as Dr. Nitzkin pointed out recently.”