A US Professor of Medicine alleges that Tobacco Free Kids will eventually be partially responsible for the deaths of millions of smokers.
Tobacco Free Kids, via their support for the Kennedy tobacco bill (S. 982) due to enter the Senate next Tuesday, will be partly responsible for the deaths of millions of smokers. That's the opinion of Brad Radu, proffessor of medicine and holder of an endowed chair in tobacco harm reduction research at the University of Louisville.
Experts in tobacco harm reduction such as Professor Radu maintain that the tobacco bill will cause irreparable harm to the cause of tobacco harm reduction by leading to a defacto ban on products which they say have one percent or less of the risk of smoking regular cigarettes. The professor, commenting on an open letter from E Cigarette Direct to Tobacco Free Kids, remarked:
"There is no public health justification for denying smokers information about and access to safer sources of tobacco and nicotine. But the war against tobacco, conducted by Tobacco Free Kids and their allies, is not about public health. It has become the latest in a long line of misguided American moral crusades."
Tobacco Free Kids has argued that the bill will help protect America's youth from cigarettes. It has been joined in its assertions by America's largest manufacturer of cigarettes, which has spent millions of dollars lobbying on behalf of the tobacco bill. Professor Radu, however, had a different perspective, arguing: "I am convinced that these anti-tobacco extremists will eventually be held partially responsible for the deaths of millions of uninformed smokers."
