• 8/7/2003
  • Washington
  • Stacie Crozier
  • ADA

The ADA joined some 40 national health and other organizations in signing a Feb. 25 letter urging the Federal Trade Commission to reject a smokeless tobacco manufacturer’s request to make positive health claims in its product advertising.

The coalition letter, coordinated by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says that the smokeless tobacco company’s request is, in essence, asking that the Federal Trade Commission “review, revise and overturn the scientific conclusions of the U.S. Surgeon General, the National Cancer Institute and every other major scientific and public health agency that has examined the health effects of smokeless tobacco.”

On Feb. 5, The U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. petitioned the FTC for an advisory opinion that would allow it to claim through advertising that its products offer less of a health risk than smoking cigarettes.

A company statement says “there is considerable agreement among researchers that use of smokeless tobacco involves significantly less risk of adverse health effects than cigarette smoking, and there is growing support in the public health community that cigarette smokers who have not quit should be encouraged to switch to smokeless tobacco. Such a harm reduction strategy is being debated in the public health community as representing a pragmatic component of a comprehensive public health policy on cigarette smoking.”

“I suppose you could argue that shooting yourself in the leg poses less of a health risk than shooting yourself in the head,” says ADA President D. Gregory Chadwick in a statement available online. “But do we really need to have this discussion? Tobacco use kills people, period. The ADA and its 141,000 member dentists oppose USSTC’s proposal to make health claims about their spit tobacco products. It’s simply a bad idea.”

According to Associated Press reports, the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. is the world’s largest manufacturer of moist snuff, a shredded tobacco product that is used by placing it between the lip and gum.

USSTC says that allowing it to use “comparative reduced risk statements in advertising…will help to educate current adult cigarette smokers and assist them in making informed choices about tobacco use.”

The Tobacco-Free Kids coalition letter notes that health claims in advertising are not limited to adult smokers, but may also be targeted at nonsmokers and young people who may be uninformed about the risks of tobacco use. The letter urges the FTC to defer scientific and medical decisions regarding the public health — such as issues related to tobacco — to the Department of Health and Human Services.

“The scientific judgments that USSTC is asking the FTC to make are more appropriately made by the federal agencies charged with protecting the public health that also possess the expertise for and experience with evaluating all of the evidence of the health effects of smokeless tobacco products,” the letter states.

In 1986, the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee concluded, “oral use of smokeless tobacco represents a significant health risk. It is not a safe substitute for smoking cigarettes. It can cause cancer and lead to a number of non-cancerous oral conditions and can lead to nicotine addiction and dependence.”

The coalition letter also notes that ruling in favor of the smokeless tobacco company’s request would countermand the express intent of Congress in the Comprehensive Smokeless Tobacco Health Education Act of 1986, which compels the secretary of Health and Human services to establish and carry out a program to inform the public of any dangers to human health resulting from the use of smokeless tobacco products.

The coalition letter also warns that a decision to allow the company to make health claims could have significant health consequences, especially among children.

“In the early 1980s USSTC introduced new products and an aggressive marketing campaign, a part of which included statements that directly or indirectly stated and/or implied that these products were not only cool, they were safer than cigarettes,” says the letter. “Public health experts and the Surgeon General concluded that the rise in smokeless tobacco use among young people that followed was at least in part attributable to the ‘new and innovative marketing strategies’ by the tobacco industry.”

Adds the ADA’s Dr. Chadwick; “We’ve seen the consequences when people — especially children — use these products. We know that spit tobacco is a carcinogen and a risk factor for oral cancer. We know that oral cancer is the fourth most common form of cancer; that it strikes some 30,000 Americans — killing 8,000 people in this country alone — every year. Spit tobacco is also a risk factor for oral and dental disease.”

The ADA plans to draft a letter to the FTC directly on this issue and to work with Congress to help address its opposition.