September 16 – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned four new packs of cigarettes from two major brands. The public health agency announced the retailers that they will have to pull recall their products from their shelves and told R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the company that produces them, that they are banned from selling their products.
The Food and Drug Administration used its new authority over tobacco products for the first time this Tuesday, to declare that four new brands of cigarettes do not meet the health requirements. Although the agency cannot ban a product that is already on the market, but it can now refuse applications to market new products.
The list of the four products that were banned by the FDA is: Camel Crush Bold, Vantage Tech 13 cigarettes, Pall Mall Deep Set Recessed Filter, and the menthol version of the later.
The director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products declared that today’s actions are reflecting the agency’s ability to make decisions under scientific review. He added that tobacco use remains the main cause of preventable death in the United States, and not only.
The Food and Drug Administration declared in a statement that the new Camel Crush pack of cigarettes contained in their filter small menthol capsules that have not been used before. R.J. Reynolds struggled to show that the capsule of menthol didn’t change the risk of the product, the FDA refused their admission. Whereas Pall Mall refused to give the company enough information about the flavors and sweeteners that were added to the cigarettes.
FDA gave retailers a 30 days time limit to remove their products from the market, in case they won’t do it, the agency will seize them. Ann Simoneau of FDA said that, as of now, these four brands of cigarettes are considered adulterated.
The spokesman of the Truth Initiative said it is encouraging to see the agency taking a stand against some of the most major cigarette brands in the world. The non-profit group is known for fighting tobacco use over the years.
Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids declared that today’s decision is a milestone in the fight against tobacco use and that he is confident the FDA will apply these kind of decisions to other leading cigarette brands as well. Myers applauds the agency’s step in preventing the addition of tobacco products that may be even more addictive and harmful than what is already available on the markets.
Myers said that cigarette brands have a long history of changing their products for the worst by making them more addictive and toxic than ever before, but he firmly believes that FDA’s new authority will be stopping these harmful tobacco products in the following years.
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