The central issue with respect to proposed Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco products is whether supply-oriented FDA approved cigarette product design changes will actually save lives or make cigarettes safer. As was noted in the prestigious 2001 Institute of Medicine report entitled: Clearing the Smoke: Assessing the Science Base of Tobacco Harm Reduction:

"For the most part, the data are insufficient to accurately describe the relationship of tobacco use and disease formation at the level of detail that would establish all causal agents involved or the exact dose-response relationship. The characteristics of this relationship vary among diseases and are affected by differences in compensation and actual exposure and by inter-individual or population differences."

This key finding continues as recent peer reviewed literature indicates that there is no scientific consensus and little evidence that link particular ingredients in cigarettes to specific morbidities and mortalities.

Yet, at the core of the proposed current legislation to allow FDA to regulate tobacco products are various product design approaches that purport to make cigarettes "safer." Underlying this effort is the current ideology of harm reduction, which posits that the least harm should occur. Unfortunately, since there is no evidence that harm will be reduced at all by removing or reducing cigarette ingredients, the current FDA legislation is really what political scientists call symbolic public policy. The legislation is designed to appear to be accomplishing a public goal when it really is not.

Fortunately, there are several scientifically verified and viable demand reduction approaches as noted by the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control and in other scientific tobacco studies to reduce tobacco consumption including: Canadian-style warning labels, higher tobacco taxes, tobacco cessation programs, effective tobacco counter-marketing efforts, and smoke-free requirements for public places, particularly in workplaces. Washington, D.C. health insiders and others need to shift their emphasis from the non-proven FDA tobacco regulation harm reduction approach to advocate for programs scientifically proven to reduce tobacco use.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=81333

http://www.healthscout.com/news/68/604912_2/main.html