While the FDA is in the process of assessing how it will regulate modified risk tobacco products, a new study in Harm Reduction Journal reports that smokers remain largely misinformed about the relative safety of these products compared to cigarettes. The study draws from data collected between 2002 and 2009 from over 21,000 smokers in Canada, the U.S, the U.K., and Australia, where public education and access to smokeless products is varied. Regardless of these differences, however, the researchers, from public health institutions in Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., observed a significant lack of knowledge about the therapeutic potential of smokeless tobacco products. Which is a trend, they say, that has the potential for adverse public health effects.
Awareness of the lower risks associated with smokeless tobacco was lowest in the U.S. and Canada, although these products are marketed in both countries. In fact, only one in six smokers in those countries knew that smokeless products are less harmful than cigarettes. This suggests, say the researchers, that the mere availability of these products doesn t mean that consumers are aware of their benefits. Governments have a responsibility to ensure that the public is informed, the authors of the study conclude.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross emphatically agrees with the study s conclusion. With the advent of the FDA s regulation of tobacco products including smokeless tobacco in the U.S., he says, the opportunity may soon present itself to provide the kind of public education that is so clearly needed. He also points to the authors assertion that manufacturers have failed to inform consumers of the benefits of smokeless tobacco: It s the government that won t allow them to properly inform the public, he says. He is hopeful, though, that this will soon change.