Here's the comment I've been trying to post at the Wash. Post in response to the article above. If someone else can successfully post this, please go for it (as every time I hit the submit button, a note pops up saying there is a network error, and to try again in a few minutes).
This puff piece covers up the Obama administration's counterproductive abstinence-only
tobacco policy that has protected cigarette markets and the drug industry at the expense of science, human rights, ethics, public health and fair market competition.
While scientific evidence consistently confirms that daily cigarette smoking poses 100 times greater mortality risk than daily use of smokeless
tobacco products (marketed in the US and Scandanavian countries), the FDA falsely claims (on a webpage ironically entitled Health Fraud) "To date, no
tobacco products have been scientifically proven to reduce risk of tobacco-related disease, improve safety or cause less harm than other tobacco products" at
Health Fraud
Not only are noncombustible tobacco products far less hazardous than cigarettes, but several million Americans (mostly white rural males) have already quit smoking (and sharply reduced their disease risks) by switching to smokeless tobacco products. But Obama's health agencies (DHHS, FDA, CDC, US PHS, US SG, NCI) refuse to inform smokers that smokeless tobacco is less hazardous than cigarettes, and refuse to admit that many smokers have quit by switching. Instead, federal health policies mislead smokers and the public to believe that "smokeless tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarettes" to discourage smokers from switching.
After Obama's election, federal health agencies stopped truthfully stating that "cigarette smoking is the leading cause of disease and death" and now deceitfully claim "tobacco use is the leading cause of disease and death" to confuse the public to believe all tobacco products are as harmful as cigarettes.
Since 2009, the FDA has made many false and misleading claims about electronic cigarettes to demonize the products, scare the public, and justify the agency's unlawful e-cigarette import ban. After Customs seized nearly a thousand shipments and after two companies sued the FDA, all 13 federal judges adjudicating the case ruled that the FDA grossly exceeded its legal authority in classifying all e-cigarettes as unregulated drug devices in an attempt to ban the products.
E-cigarettes emit none of the 5,000+ contaminants in tobacco smoke, but rather they emit a tiny amount of vaporized nicotine into the user's mouth. Scientific evidence indicates that e-cigarettes are about 99% less hazardous than cigarettes, and there is no evidence they pose any risks to nonusers. About a million smokers in the US have already quit smoking by switching to e-cigarettes, but FDA still refuses to admit that anyone has quit by switching to e-cigarettes, still refuses to admit e-cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes, and still posts many false and misleading claims about e-cigarettes.
Now the FDA wants to expand its regulatory control over unregulated tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, in another attempt to ban them. FDA heal thyself.
