Institute of Medicine urges FDA to protect deadly cigarettes from market competition by far less hazardous smokefree tobacco alternatives.

The new Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee report on Modified Risk Tobacco Products is terrible for public health because it urges the FDA to protect deadly cigarettes from market competition by far less hazardous smokefree alternatives.

The IOM committee is basically urging the FDA to impose a several hundred million dollar tax on any tobacco company before it could truthfully inform smokers that a smokeless tobacco product is less hazardous than cigarettes.

While the report correctly points out that NRT products pose virtually no health risks, it ignores a half century a evidence documenting that smokeless tobacco products in Sweden and the US have very similar health risks/benefit profiles as NRT products.

The IOM committee report also ignores the undeniable evidence that several million smokers in the US and Sweden have already switched to smokeless tobacco products, and have significantly reduced their disease risks by doing so.

The IOM committee's recommendation would require a tobacco company to conduct far more research than FDA requires drug companies to conduct on NRT products before they can be marketed as smoking cessation aids.

Smokers have a human right to truthful health information about far less hazardous alternatives to cigarettes. But this IOM committee obviously disagrees.

In sum, the IOM committee's report protects cigarettes at the expense of public health, human rights and the truth.

smokefree@compuserve.com

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