In The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers call for maximizing public health gains
A new perspective piece from researchers at the College of Public Health and Ohio State’s Center for Tobacco Research calls on researchers and policymakers to anticipate how the tobacco industry may use loopholes to skirt new rules being considered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reduce harm caused by cigarette smoking.
The paper, which appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, was coauthored by CPH Assistant Professor Ahmad El Hellani and Research Professor Marielle Brinkman in collaboration with Theodore Wagener, director of the Center for Tobacco Research and co-leader of the Cancer Control Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
The tobacco industry has manipulated the design and composition of cigarettes for decades, the authors say, by increasing nicotine content, incorporating chemical additives, and reengineering filters to deliver nicotine at levels that encourage and sustain addiction among consumers. The FDA is considering limiting nicotine levels in cigarettes, which could substantially reduce rates of disease and premature deaths. The authors warn the industry might chemically and physically modify cigarettes in ways that would void the public health benefit of a future FDA nicotine standard for cigarettes.
“Implementing a nicotine product standard for cigarettes has the potential to support the tobacco ‘endgame’ by helping to curb cigarette smoking, which has been the leading cause of preventable death in the United States for decades,” the authors write. “To ensure that its potential is realized, we believe researchers and health officials should anticipate, examine, and prevent the use of possible tactics by the tobacco industry that would threaten the public health benefits of such a standard.”
Read more in The New England Journal of Medicine.
