Harm Minimization and Tobacco Control: Reframing Societal Views of Nicotine Use to Rapidly Save Lives
by Abrams, Glasser, Pearson, Villanti, Collins & Niaura
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040617-013849
While the authors correctly concur that vapor products, Swedish snus & American moist snuff are all exponentially less harmful than cigarettes on the Continuum of Risk, they inappropriately promoted and built upon Nutt et al’s inaccurate claim that American moist snuff and Swedish snus are more harmful than vaping.
The authors also naively claimed that THR is a key component for tobacco control, while failing to acknowledge that tobacco controllers have been protecting cigarettes by demonizing and lobbying to ban sales/use and tax all very low risk smokefree THR products for decades.
And while the authors propose vague changes in FDA policy to promote THR, they failed to acknowledge that
the primary goal of the 2009 Tobacco Control Act, FDA's 2009 illegal e-cig ban, and FDA's 2016 Deeming Rule
(that originally banned the sale of all vapor products to US adults on 8/8/2018, and was delayed until 8/8/2022)
was to ban the sale of low risk THR products (because they compete against PM's Marlboro cigarettes and Big Pharma's nicotine products, and because selfish PM and selfish Big Pharma funded tobacco controllers lobbied Congress to enact the TCA and subsequently urged FDA to impose the Deeming Rule).
Unless/until the TCA is amended by Congress (e.g. enactment of HR 2194, Duncan Hunter's bill), and/or unless/until the Deeming Rule is rescinded or drastically changed by the FDA (things the authors didn't even mention), the TCA and Deeming Rule will continue to increasingly ban the sale of more vapor products until all are banned in 2022, and will continue to ban truthful claims by all smokefree product manufacturers.
