Swedish tobacco company to challenge FDA demands for warning labels

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/09/swedish-match-snus-tobacco-fda-warning-labels

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Tobacco company Swedish Match has two days to convince the US Food and Drug Administration that its moist powdered tobacco product snus should not have to carry a warning listing its health risks.

Starting on Thursday, the company will present its case that snus, which is sold in small pouches, is less harmful than cigarettes and as such should be allowed to use different warnings.

Instead of warning consumers about the potential of mouth cancer, gum disease and tooth loss, Swedish Match wants the labels on snus to say that the product – which is cured and pasteurized to produce fewer toxins – carries lower risks to health than cigarettes. The company hopes to market itself as a safer alternative to cigarettes.

“Society should have something to offer the 45 million people in the US who still smoke and are just not able to quit,” Dr Lars Erik Rutqvist, senior vice-president of scientific affairs for Swedish Match, told the New York Times.

To make its case, Swedish Match submitted 135,000 pages of data, case studies and other research. In his interview with the Times, Rutqvist pointed out that at the same time that the number of Swedish men who smoke dropped to 11% from 27% in 1989, snus use increased from 17% to 21%.

The vote on whether the warning label should be changed will be held on Friday.

Anti-smoking groups are concerned that more lenient warnings could lead to an increase in tobacco use among the young and say that removing all health risks from the warnings is going a step too far.

“All of the data from Sweden indicates that products that meet the Swedish standards still increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and pose a risk of pancreatic and esophageal cancer and are harmful if used by pregnant women,” Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, told the New York Times. “There is no mention in the Swedish Match proposal of any of these specific risks.”

The fight over the warning labels comes years after Swedish Match failed to convince the European Commission to lift a 1992 ban on snus sales. Snus, while legal in the EU, cannot be sold in pouch form outside Sweden, which received an exemption from the sales ban when it joined the EU in 1995.

Snus is quite important to Swedes. When they voted on whether to join the European Union, many proudly displayed bumper stickers that said: “Yes to the EU, but not if I have to sacrifice my snus!”