Some big news from the FDA this week. They have declared 8 different ‘dissolvable’ tobacco products “Not Substantially Equivalent”. This means that these products do not fall in with special guidelines barring the sale of new tobacco based products which will attract a different audience and are used in a different way that pre-existing products.
Dissolvable tobacco products are small candy-like pellets made with tobacco. You place them in your mouth where they dissolve and you swallow the nicotine and other ingredients. You do not smoke them and they do not require spitting like chew tobacco.
This is a big moment for tobacco cessation efforts. As smoking is pushed farther and farther to the edges of society, products like these dissolvables will become more common. These products are not FDA approved as a smoking alternative and they DO contain tobacco and nicotine, so users are still feeding their nicotine addiction. By taking a stance on them now, the FDA could save years of effort and thousands of lives.
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