FDA asks R.J. Reynolds for data about new smokeless products
Jump to full article: Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, 2010-02-07
Author: Richard Craver * Journal Reporter
Intro: The evolution of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. may be shaped in large part by how well it can live down -- and learn from -- its past.
Reynolds received another clear example of that reality last week when the Food and Drug Administration requested research on the company's three innovative dissolvable smokeless products -- Camel Orbs, Camel Sticks and Camel Strips -- and others being considered.
The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee was formed as part of the FDA taking on oversight of the tobacco industry last year.
. . .
The FDA acknowledges that Reynolds is marketing the products to adult consumers.
"The center is concerned that children and adolescents may find dissolvable tobacco products particularly appealing, given the brightly colored packaging, candy-like appearance and easily concealable size of many of these products," Dr. Lawrence Deyton, the director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, wrote in a letter. . . .
Bill Godshall, the executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania, said he welcomes "open-minded" research that determines whether smokeless-tobacco products and electronic cigarettes are less-harmful options.
What he doesn't like, he said, is politicians and anti-tobacco advocates "grandstanding" with accusations of Reynolds "target marketing candy tobacco to children without providing any evidence to back up their theatrical allegations."
"If the allegations were true, it would mean that Reynolds was in violation of the Master Settlement Agreement and/or state laws that prohibit tobacco sales to minors," Godshall said.
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