The FDA says it wants to reduce tobacco harm, but its docket tells a different story: it has greenlit hundreds of new cigarettes while bottlenecking lower-risk alternatives. For the 480,000 Americans whom smoking kills each year, that’s failure. If protecting public health is the mandate, the FDA must expand approvals for lower-risk alternatives to smokers that give them a way to quit.
One of the first steps the agency can take is renewing authorizations for reduced-risk products which the agency has already vetted, including heated tobacco products (HTPs) now up for renewal. When the FDA first authorized HTPs the agency’s own review found that the aerosol produced by heating—not burning—tobacco contained far fewer toxic chemicals than cigarette smoke. Since then, the evidence has only strengthened: studies report roughly 90 percent lower levels of harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) and 95 percent lower levels of known carcinogens compared with cigarettes.
Justin Leventhal is a senior policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal.