From Winston-Salem Journal:
Tobacco foes change strategy
They accept smokeless as less harmful than cigarettes
By Richard Craver | Journal Reporter
Published: February 26, 2009
A group of 26 advocates and university researchers collectively acknowledged for the first time yesterday that smokeless-tobacco products are an option for reducing health risks for tobacco users.
The officials include the leaders of two fierce tobacco opponents -- the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Legacy Foundation -- and four representatives from the National Cancer Institute.
The officials called "for policies that encourage current tobacco users to reduce their health risks by switching from the most to the least harmful nicotine-containing products" as part of their two-year study titled "The Strategic Dialogue on Tobacco Harm Reduction."
The officials also repeated their call for federal regulation of all tobacco products and for money for the tobacco-cessation programs that they have sought for years.
What makes the study pivotal is that "oral tobacco products" were listed as part of a potential middle ground between cigarettes and such nicotine-cessation products as gum and patches.
The study's results are aimed at "helping tobacco users who are unable or unwilling to quit to shift to the least harmful nicotine products" and providing an "accurate education of the public regarding the relative risks of different nicotine-containing products."
The group "acknowledged that cigarettes are the most-harmful tobacco product and that, under the continuum, medicinal nicotine products such as nicotine gum and patches are less harmful than oral tobacco products."
"Our report is a blueprint," said Dorothy Hatsukami, a co-chairwoman of the study and an associate director of the population-sciences department at the University of Minnesota.
"It lays out the key elements of a science-based regulatory program and policies to shift current tobacco users away from cigarettes," Hatsukami said. "With these policies and programs, we believe that the death toll from cigarette smoking and other tobacco use can be reduced dramatically."
Smokeless products are drawing support from some anti-smoking groups as a less-hazardous way to consume tobacco.
Those groups, as well as Reynolds American Inc., the leading manufacturer in innovative smokeless products, want any proposed regulation of tobacco products by the Food and Drug Administration to allow for the marketing of smokeless products as having a reduced risk when compared with cigarettes.
The proposed FDA bill does not carve out that niche for smokeless tobacco. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., is considering introducing an alternative regulation bill that would contain that distinction.
"Sen. Burr is supportive of the continuum-of-risk concept to move smokers from combustible tobacco products to less harmful, no-combustible tobacco products, and supports giving adult consumers the information needed to make informed decisions concerning the use of tobacco products," said Chris Walker, a spokesman for Burr.
"However, Sen. Burr supports establishing a new agency under the Department of Health and Human Services to regulate tobacco, rather than granting the already overburdened FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products," Walker said.
Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for Reynolds, said that the consensus on incorporating a continuum of risk in tobacco-regulation legislation "is a significant step and one we endorse."
"The legislation pending in Congress does not address this concept and should be changed to recognize its importance in reducing disease and death from tobacco use," Payne said.
Bill Godshall, the executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania, said that the group's announcement is "a huge step toward sound tobacco policy as Congress prepares to consider FDA tobacco-regulatory legislation." Godshall's group did not take part in the study.
Major American tobacco manufacturers are putting more emphasis on smokeless products, such as snuff and snus, to gain market share and sales as the smoking rate among adults declines.
Government figures show that fewer than 44 million Americans smoke, down from a peak of 53.5 million in 1983. About 6 percent of adult men and 1 percent of adult women use smokeless products, Godshall said.
Reynolds recently began national distribution of its Camel Snus product. But some anti-smoking activists oppose marketing smokeless tobacco under cigarettes' brand names.
"Snus makes up about 1 percent of smokeless-tobacco sales, so clearly it has a ways to go before having an impact," Godshall said.
The group said that any claims of less harm for smokeless-tobacco products "have not been scientifically substantiated. Such misrepresentations can lead to misperceptions about the safety of these products and result in greater tobacco use."
Matthew Myers, a member of the group and the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that the study "carefully did not take a position on smokeless-tobacco products because there was no consensus within the group."
"The report basically endorses with the FDA legislation considered last year and is entirely consistent with the belief that no claims should be made for less harm with smokeless products without regulatory approval," Myers said.
"The report does not move the ball along" in terms of smokeless products.
■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
Tobacco foes change strategy
They accept smokeless as less harmful than cigarettes
By Richard Craver | Journal Reporter
Published: February 26, 2009
A group of 26 advocates and university researchers collectively acknowledged for the first time yesterday that smokeless-tobacco products are an option for reducing health risks for tobacco users.
The officials include the leaders of two fierce tobacco opponents -- the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Legacy Foundation -- and four representatives from the National Cancer Institute.
The officials called "for policies that encourage current tobacco users to reduce their health risks by switching from the most to the least harmful nicotine-containing products" as part of their two-year study titled "The Strategic Dialogue on Tobacco Harm Reduction."
The officials also repeated their call for federal regulation of all tobacco products and for money for the tobacco-cessation programs that they have sought for years.
What makes the study pivotal is that "oral tobacco products" were listed as part of a potential middle ground between cigarettes and such nicotine-cessation products as gum and patches.
The study's results are aimed at "helping tobacco users who are unable or unwilling to quit to shift to the least harmful nicotine products" and providing an "accurate education of the public regarding the relative risks of different nicotine-containing products."
The group "acknowledged that cigarettes are the most-harmful tobacco product and that, under the continuum, medicinal nicotine products such as nicotine gum and patches are less harmful than oral tobacco products."
"Our report is a blueprint," said Dorothy Hatsukami, a co-chairwoman of the study and an associate director of the population-sciences department at the University of Minnesota.
"It lays out the key elements of a science-based regulatory program and policies to shift current tobacco users away from cigarettes," Hatsukami said. "With these policies and programs, we believe that the death toll from cigarette smoking and other tobacco use can be reduced dramatically."
Smokeless products are drawing support from some anti-smoking groups as a less-hazardous way to consume tobacco.
Those groups, as well as Reynolds American Inc., the leading manufacturer in innovative smokeless products, want any proposed regulation of tobacco products by the Food and Drug Administration to allow for the marketing of smokeless products as having a reduced risk when compared with cigarettes.
The proposed FDA bill does not carve out that niche for smokeless tobacco. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., is considering introducing an alternative regulation bill that would contain that distinction.
"Sen. Burr is supportive of the continuum-of-risk concept to move smokers from combustible tobacco products to less harmful, no-combustible tobacco products, and supports giving adult consumers the information needed to make informed decisions concerning the use of tobacco products," said Chris Walker, a spokesman for Burr.
"However, Sen. Burr supports establishing a new agency under the Department of Health and Human Services to regulate tobacco, rather than granting the already overburdened FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products," Walker said.
Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for Reynolds, said that the consensus on incorporating a continuum of risk in tobacco-regulation legislation "is a significant step and one we endorse."
"The legislation pending in Congress does not address this concept and should be changed to recognize its importance in reducing disease and death from tobacco use," Payne said.
Bill Godshall, the executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania, said that the group's announcement is "a huge step toward sound tobacco policy as Congress prepares to consider FDA tobacco-regulatory legislation." Godshall's group did not take part in the study.
Major American tobacco manufacturers are putting more emphasis on smokeless products, such as snuff and snus, to gain market share and sales as the smoking rate among adults declines.
Government figures show that fewer than 44 million Americans smoke, down from a peak of 53.5 million in 1983. About 6 percent of adult men and 1 percent of adult women use smokeless products, Godshall said.
Reynolds recently began national distribution of its Camel Snus product. But some anti-smoking activists oppose marketing smokeless tobacco under cigarettes' brand names.
"Snus makes up about 1 percent of smokeless-tobacco sales, so clearly it has a ways to go before having an impact," Godshall said.
The group said that any claims of less harm for smokeless-tobacco products "have not been scientifically substantiated. Such misrepresentations can lead to misperceptions about the safety of these products and result in greater tobacco use."
Matthew Myers, a member of the group and the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that the study "carefully did not take a position on smokeless-tobacco products because there was no consensus within the group."
"The report basically endorses with the FDA legislation considered last year and is entirely consistent with the belief that no claims should be made for less harm with smokeless products without regulatory approval," Myers said.
"The report does not move the ball along" in terms of smokeless products.
■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
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