Merkley and Brown have [image-nocss] labeled as "tobacco candy" the three dissolvable products being test marketed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Winston-Salem, N.C. The senators say that the dissolvable products are aimed at getting youths hooked on tobacco and nicotine.
"There is no doubt that smokeless tobacco products are aimed squarely at children," Brown said. "We have a responsibility to protect children from suggestive marketing and dangerous products."
Reynolds counters that the products: a pellet (Camel Orbs), a twisted stick the size of a toothpick (Camel Sticks) and a filmlike strip for the tongue (Camel Strips), are aimed at adult consumers who want to use a tobacco product in places where they can no longer smoke by federal and state law. The products are made of finely milled tobacco and come in flavor styles called "fresh" and "mellow." They last from two to three minutes for the strips, 10 to 15 minutes for the orbs and 20 to 30 minutes for the sticks.
Orbs are sold in containers that the senators say resemble cell phones. From a distance, the packaging and design of the individual Orbs look like breath mints, they added.
"Camel Sticks, Strips and Orbs offer a convenient alternative for adult tobacco consumers," said David Howard, external communications director at parent company Reynolds American Inc., told CSP Daily News when the rollout of the products was announced in late 2008. "In focus group testing with hundreds of adult tobacco consumers across the country, they told us they were interested in these products and felt they provided a tobacco product they could enjoy without bothering others."
Howard told The Dayton Daily News that the product, like all tobacco products, is legal only for adults over the age of 18. Orbs, he said, "meet the societal expectation of no second-hand smoke, no spitting, and in the case of dissolvables, no litter."
He said they're hardly candy. They are made of finely milled tobacco, and designed for adults.
"The bottom line is these are tobacco products," he said. "They are clearly marked as tobacco products, they are marketed as tobacco products and they carry the same warnings as tobacco products."
He said similar products have been on the market since earlier this decade with little protest. And he said he welcomes Browns amendment and any study of their product.
In October, Reynolds introduced the dissolvable products in test markets in Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis and Portland, Ore.
The Merkley-Brown amendment, which was successfully added to the Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act in the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pension (HELP), will requires the new Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee to study the public health effects of the smokeless, dissolvable tobacco products and report to the FDA on its findings.
The committee's recommendations will provide the FDA with all the information it needs to act on the question of the public health impact of these products, particularly as those risks pertain to children, and take steps to prevent these products from being widely marketed and sold, according to the senators.
North Carolina Senators Richard Burr (R) and Kay Hagan (D) voted against the amendment, said the report.
The FDA tobacco regulation bill is expected to be dealt with in the Senate next week. Like the House version of the bill that was passed in April, it would impose restrictions on the marketing of cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco and allow the FDA to regulate the content of cigarettes.
In March, Burr and Hagan introduced an alternative tobacco-regulation bill that has made little progress. Their bill would create a new federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to solely regulate tobacco instead of assigning the task to the FDA.
Burr and Hagan said that the agency is too "overburdened" to oversee tobacco. Burr has threatened to filibuster the Kennedy bill, the report said.
Julie Edwards, a spokesperson for Merkley, told the newspaper that unlike nicotine gum, which is meant to be used for a limited time with decreasing use of nicotine, "tobacco candy is meant to start or continue the addiction and may have even higher doses of nicotine than cigarettes." "We are talking about a product that hasn't been strenuously studied but is assumed to carry many of the same risks as chewing tobacco, including the risk of cancer."
Both Reynolds officials and some smokeless-tobacco advocates dispute Edwards' statement on higher doses of nicotine in smokeless products, said the report.
Tommy Payne, the executive vice president of public affairs for Reynolds, told the paper that the senators' amendment is part of an "abstinence-only strategy that only provides three options for smokers: cigarettes, nicotine replacement or quitting cold turkey."
He added, "Our smokeless products are part of a strategy aimed at harm reduction that is backed by scientists and elements of the antismoking advocacy groups. Their intent with the dissolvable study could be beneficial to our efforts if the science reveals what we believe it will."
Bill Godshall, the executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania, said that "many inaccurate and misleading claims were made about the least hazardous tobacco products" by senators and others at the markup session. He is an advocate of switching smokers to smokeless products for health benefits.
He said that efforts to diminish or snuff out the impact of smokeless products would keep those unable or unwilling to quit cigarettes hooked on their habit. "The amendment's real intent was to poison and pre-empt passage of, and any objective discussion about, responsible tobacco harm-reduction amendments that can significantly reduce cigarette consumption and save the lives of millions of smokers," Godshall told the paper.
"By repeatedly referring to Camel Orbs as candy, and by falsely accusing Reynolds of target marketing them to youth--which if true, would be actionable violations of both the Master Settlement Agreement and state minimum-age sales laws--the senators went over-the-top to protect Marlboro's lethal cigarette empire from harm-reduction market competition by Reynolds' far less-hazardous smoke-free alternatives."
He was referring to Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris USA's support for FDA regulation, which some industry observers have said is an attempt by the company to secure a dominant market position for its tobacco products.
Click hereto read a recent CSP magazine feature on dissolvable tobacco.
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