A Long Journey on Tobacco Road, Vindicated

“Current public health policies offer smokers only two choices: to continue to smoke despite knowledge of adverse health consequences, or to quit, which often proves very difficult.

“In a review of the avoidable causes of cancer, Doll and Peto observed that ‘No single measure is known that would have as great an impact on the number of deaths attributable to cancer as a reduction in the use of tobacco or a change to the use of tobacco in a less dangerous way.’  Unfortunately, the second part of this observation has not received attention.  Because smokeless tobacco causes far fewer and considerably less serious health effects than does smoking, it should be promulgated as an alternative to cigarettes for smokers unable or unwilling to overcome their nicotine addiction.”

Brad Rodu DDS, Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham

July 1, 1994 

An Alternative Approach to Smoking Control.  American Journal of the Medical Sciences Volume 308: pages 32-34. (here)

“Thus, both the 35-year-old non-user of tobacco and the smokeless-tobacco user will live on average to be 80.9 years of age compared with 73.1 years for the smoker.  Only 67% of smokers will be alive at age 70, compared with more than 87% of smokeless-tobacco users and nonusers of tobacco.

“…abstinence is not the only approach to reducing tobacco-related mortality: for smokers addicted to nicotine who would not otherwise stop, a permanent switch to smokeless tobacco could be an acceptable alternative to quitting.”

Brad Rodu DDS and Philip Cole MD, DrPH, Professors, University of Alabama at Birmingham

July 21, 1994

Tobacco-related mortality.  Nature Volume 370: page 184. (here)

“Among these and many other opportunities, there’s probably no single intervention, or product we’re likely to create in the near future that can have as profound an impact on reducing illness and death from disease as our ability to increase the rate of decline in smoking.

 “We need to redouble efforts to help more smokers become tobacco-free.  And, we need to have the science base to explore the potential to move current smokers – unable or unwilling to quit – to less harmful products, if they can’t quit altogether.”

Scott Gottlieb MD, Commissioner, US Food and Drug Administration

May 15, 2017

Remarks to FDA Staff (here)