Dissolvable tobacco products under FDA scrutiny
Health Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
From: FOXNews.com
The Food and Drug Administration will meet this week to discuss the public health impact of tobacco products known as dissolvable tobacco, which some say resemble candy, including their use by children.
Dissolvable tobacco products, which include Camel Orbs, Camel Strips and Camel Sticks, made by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., are relatively new. The company introduced these products in 2009, promoting them as a way to enjoy tobacco in areas where smoking is not allowed. They all contain nicotine and dissolve in the mouth. They are not intended to help people quit smoking.
Because they produce no second-hand smoke or cigarette litter, “they are more in line with societal expectations about tobacco product use today,” according to a 2010 statement from R.J. Reynolds.
However, doctors have expressed concern that these products may appeal to youth and lead to nicotine addiction at a young age. Camel Orbs are round, come in mint and cinnamon flavors, and resemble Tic Tacs or M&Ms, noted the authors of a 2010 paper in the journal Pediatrics.
“It’s deceptive,” Dan Jacobsen, a nurse-practitioner at the Center for Tobacco Control, part of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, N.Y., said of the products. To a child, “it doesn’t look dangerous; it doesn’t look like something they’re going to become addicted to,” Jacobsen said.
Trying the flavored products may start kids down a path of addiction that’s hard to get off of, said Jacobsen, a former smoker. “I think it is definitely a threat to children,” he said.
To read more, visit: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/19/dissolvable-tobacco-products-under-fda-scrutiny/
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