Anyone who pays attention to the field of tobacco harm reduction knows that although low-risk nicotine products represented by e-cigarettes have made great contributions to tobacco harm reduction, they are often the source of all these harms-tobacco seems to have more advantages than harm reduction products. relaxed environment. This phenomenon is like criminals are always on the loose, and those who are brave enough to do justice are repeatedly suppressed.

Recently, the US FDA has been strongly criticized for its "double-standard" behavior on tobacco and e-cigarettes, and the FDA's practice also seems to disclose that there is such a "double-standard" unspoken rule.

The incident began when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a tobacco company's low-nicotine cigarette for sale as a low-risk tobacco product, an action that has been called "the FDA's most absurd decision to date." , because these products are still combustible cigarettes in the final analysis, and also produce the same toxins as traditional cigarettes, but with extremely low nicotine content.

While most people still misunderstand the health risks posed by ingesting nicotine, public health experts have emphasized more than once that it is the tar and other cancer-causing chemicals in cigarettes, not nicotine, that cause disease.

Instead, the FDA granted 22nd Century Group the right to market its VLN King and VLN Menthol King combusted filter cigarettes as modified risk tobacco products. Tobacco harm reduction expert Clive Bates said these products still produce smoke and all the thousands of toxins like traditional cigarettes. But just because the nicotine levels were reduced led the FDA to conclude that anyone willing to smoke them would be exposed to less nicotine. But we've known for a long time that "people smoke for nicotine and die from tar" (Mike Russell), and the FDA does the opposite, giving smokers less nicotine and the same tar.

Reducing nicotine does not reduce risk

Many experts question how VLN cigarettes manage to meet the FDA's stringent MRTP standards, which require products to "significantly reduce the harm of tobacco products to individual tobacco users," said Dr. and risk of tobacco-related disease, and benefit the health of the entire population, taking into account tobacco product users and those who do not currently use tobacco products.”

And reducing nicotine doesn't reduce risk at all, because nicotine doesn't cause cancer or any other smoking-related disease. On the other hand, there was no reduction at all in the chemicals in cigarettes after reducing nicotine.

A search of the NIH funding database using the term "low-nicotine cigarettes" revealed 698 projects totaling $286 million over the past decade, Rodu said. “This doesn’t mean that all the money is being invested in VLNCs, but at least it shows that the topic is a buzzword used by researchers to get substantial federal financial support. In essence, the FDA is advancing the government’s goal of “creating a A world without tobacco (and nicotine) "costs hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to fund research so that it can license a private company's combustible cigarettes for supposed benefits to smokers and the general population."

In the end, this move by the FDA is really incredible. Even if the nicotine content is reduced, it cannot change the toxic and harmful substances released by tobacco combustion. And because the nicotine content is reduced, it will lead to a substantial increase in the amount of smokers, which is harmful to tobacco control but not beneficial. In fact, the "double standard" has always existed between tobacco and harm reduction products, and the fundamental reason behind it is still the huge benefits brought by tobacco.