Tobacco Merchants Association Annual Meeting

[JustJulie]

I was reading Dr. Siegel's blog about the tobacco Merchants Association Annual Meeting (The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary: Blogging from the Tobacco Merchants Association Annual Meeting). As usual, a great read.

I know that Elaine Keller, Greg Conley, and Bill Godshall were there . . . I'd love to hear more about the conference when someone gets a chance.

 

[Placebo Effect]

I think I confused Dr. Siegel yesterday. I mentioned that Dr. Rodu was one of the people I admire in the rational tobacco control world that I had yet to meet. He shared the stage with Dr. Nitzkin, a lawyer in the njoy case, and an executive from Swedish Match.

The conference was great. We showed off a large variety of e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, NRT, etc. products, and met a wide variety of people from the world of tobacco.

The lawyer from njoy didn't say too much, but the 3 other speakers on the Tobacco Harm Reduction panel were excellent. Either Nitzkin or Siegel asserted that the harm from e-cigarettes is .1% or less than that of cigarettes.

It's clear that tobacco merchants and those in related fields do actually want to reduce harm. It's a shame those in public health don't feel the same way.

 

[JustJulie]

Thanks for the update, Greg. I'm curious . . . what was the reaction from some of the "people from the world of tobacco" to CASAA's table? Did they seem intrigued?

 

[Vocalek]

Yes. We had quite a few people stop by, take one of the tri-fold e-cigarette brochures and business cards from Bill, Greg, or me. One representative from the Food and Drug Law Institute spoke to us about writing a chapter in a book they are putting together. Details to follow when we know more. After having made appearances at places were 90% of the people there hate the idea of tobacco harm reduction (SRNT, FDA, IOM) it was such a pleasant experience to have everyone treat us well.

It was Nitzken who presented a slide showing the relative harm of various products:

Cigarette Smoking - 100%
Cigars and Pipe Smoking - 30 to 50% (of the risk of cigarette smoking)
Smokeless tobacco products - 1%
Pharmaceutical Nicotine and e-cigarettes - 0.1%

The speaker from Star Scientific, Vice-President Communications, Sara Troy Machir, related how her company had tried to invent a safer cigarette and finally decided that it could not be done. They sold off the cigarette-making part of the business a few years ago. Now all they make are dissolvable tobacco products, including the new BDL (Below Detectable Levels) versions of the Ariva and Stonewall products. She said that Star Scientific was as surprised as anyone when the FDA responded to their application for Modified Risk status by telling the company that their products did not meet the definition of smokeless tobacco products in the law, therefore FDA will not be regulating them as such.

The folks from RJ Reynolds enjoyed the poster I put together juxtaposing their ad for Camel snus products with the very child-catching ad I received in the mail for Nicorette products.


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