Snus Beats Nicotine Gum for Quitting Smoking, Say New Zealand Researchers

If you’re trying to quit smoking, forget nicotine gum. Researchers at New Zealand’s University of Otago showed that while only 10% of people who use nicotine replacement therapy actually stop smoking, 37% quit cigarettes by using snus. Tiny packets of non-spit-producing snus (pasteurized dry crushed tobacco placed between gum and cheek) were far preferred over nicotine gum by smokers in the study. The results were published in the respected journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.  Snus is “easy to take, people like the impact and they suppress withdrawal symptoms,” said lead researcher Dr. Brent Caldwell from the Department of Medicine. The research was funded by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand.

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E-Cigarettes May Be Inviting FDA and FTC Scrutiny

E-cigarettes -- tubes that look like cigarettes but deliver nicotine without burning tobacco -- may be pushing the limits with their consumer advertising, and FDA/FTC crackdowns could be coming. The marketer of Smoking Stick Electronic Cigarettes is aggressively promoting an advertising site that is cleverly masked to look like a legitimate TV news site, complete with phony "comments". With claims like "It's a healthier way to smoke," the ad site is clearly inviting agency scrutiny.

The e-cigarette industry already is involved in one legal dispute with the FDA. The agency had blocked importation of Chinese e-cigs to the U.S., but in early January 2010 a federal judge ordered the FDA to back off, saying the agency doesn't have jurisdiction. This issue is far from settled.

Menthol on Today's FDA Docket

The new federal advisory board for tobacco regulation meets for the first time today in Washington, DC, to decide what to do about menthol flavorings in cigarettes, which account for almost a third of the nation’s $70 billion cigarette market. Under the law, the F.D.A. is to issue a report on menthol next year and take action by 2012. “We’ve spent a lot of time working on the dangers of smoking, but now we’re going to be taking a somewhat different approach,” said Dr. Jonathan Samet, chairman of the advisory panel. “We’ll be trying to understand what it is in the products that harm people and what changes can be made.”

Half of long-term smokers eventually die of smoking-related causes, according to the  World Health Organization. If the FDA has any sense, it would encourage marketers to educate smokers about smokeless tobacco, which has been shown to be 98% safer than cigarettes and an effective smoking cessation aid.

FDA Demands Kid Marketing Research From Reynolds

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has asked Reynolds by April 1 to provide its research into how its Camel Orbs, Strips and Sticks dissolvable tobacco products are used and perceived by people age 25 and younger. In a February letter to Reynolds, Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, said the agency is concerned that adolescents may be drawn to the products' "brightly colored packaging" and "easily concealable size." Reynolds says it only markets to adults, and positions its smokeless products as alternatives to cigarettes for times when lighting up is illegal or impractical. Reynolds is hoping the FDA will give weight to the growing legions of public health experts who say that smokeless tobacco products are significantly safer or less harmful than cigarettes; these health advocates support the tobacco industry's desire to advertise those facts to adult smokers.