Those who support tobacco harm reduction as an effective option for reducing the terrible toll of smoking on Americans health face an uphill battle, as media coverage continues to promote misleading claims about the safety and effectiveness of harm reduction products. And so we were dismayed to read an extremely one-sided USA Today article on an upcoming FDA meeting that will discuss the safety of tobacco lozenges and strips, known as dissolvables.
Instead of, at the very least, acknowledging the potential benefits of smokeless tobacco products for those who wish to quit smoking, Denise Mann s article asserts that these products shouldn t be considered stop-smoking aids at all. Instead, the writer gives credence to the claim that their sole use is to satisfy the nicotine cravings of a smoker stuck in a non-smoking location. The article quotes Dr. Thomas Glynn, director of cancer science and trends at the American Cancer Society, who says, I don t see any potential in these dissolvable products other than to keep people smoking.
But ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross strongly disagrees with such assertions, and points out that these products are in fact intended to be used as smoking cessation aids. Evidence from Sweden and other studies suggests that certain types of smokeless tobacco, such as snus, may be especially effective at helping smokers quit this deadly habit, he says. It is not permitted to market any type of smokeless tobacco as a stop-smoking aid, but the legislation ought to be changed to allow these products to be marketed, at the very least, as lower-risk products than cigarettes, because there is no question that they are.
The article goes on to suggest that tobacco dissolvables could pose a serious threat to children and teenagers. Children, Mann reports, could overdose on these flavored products, mistaking them for candy, and suffer nicotine poisoning. And, according to the article, teens could easily become addicted to the nicotine contained in these products.
Yet as Dr. Ross points out, There are many products in the home that, if ingested by a toddler, would be dangerous. Just as with any such items, tobacco strips and lozenges should be kept out of the hands of children; and it remains against the law to sell these products to adolescents. What s more, he adds, even if these products are flavored, they still taste awful. Children are not going to be attracted to them.
Meanwhile, ACSH s Leah Wibecan wonders why there is no uproar over the flavored nicotine lozenges that have been marketed as smoking cessation aids for years; they can contain even higher levels of nicotine than the tobacco dissolvables discussed in the article. Wouldn't these products be more likely be appealing to children, since they avoid the unpleasant taste of tobacco? she asks.