Matthew Myers is a founder of the highly influential Campaign
For Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), where he has served as president for over 20
years (here). He claims to have “participated in virtually
every major US tobacco-related legislative effort” and to have “led the effort
that resulted in 2009 in the US Food and Drug Administration being given
authority … over tobacco products.”
Myers and his organization are warriors for tobacco
prohibition and staunch opponents of all forms of tobacco harm reduction (THR).
At a 2003 congressional hearing titled, “Can
Tobacco Cure Smoking? A Review of Tobacco Harm Reduction,” witnesses included the U.S. Surgeon General, the chairman
of the Federal Trade Commission and Myers.
David Sweanor and I testified in support of THR.
Interestingly, Myers actually endorsed THR in his testimony,
with a caveat. He insisted that Congress
“grant the Food and
Drug Administration comprehensive regulatory authority over all tobacco
products. If we want to do harm reduction based on science, not rhetoric; if we
want to make the truism that knowledge is power, then we will insure that there
is a government agency that has regulatory authority over the product so that
we will know and consumers will know what is in that product; so that we will
know and consumers will know truthfully not just what the manufacturers want us
to know but the truth, the full truth about the relative harmful effects of
those products.”
This was not an isolated statement. In his oral and written testimony, he repeatedly
expressed support for FDA-supervised THR.
Here is another excerpt:
“A discussion about
harm reduction has to begin with a discussion about providing the FDA with the
kind of authority that is necessary to protect consumers, verify claims, and
require that all reasonable steps are taken to reduce the harm caused to
smokers. Is there a role for smokeless tobacco in a comprehensive effort to
reduce the death toll from tobacco overseen by the FDA? No one has the
information to make that decision today. The FDA should be open to all
strategies that are scientifically based and that will save lives. The decision
about what role smokeless tobacco plays in that overall scheme is a decision
that can only be made by the FDA after it has all of the relevant information
before it.”
Kentucky Congressman Ed Whitfield posed this question to
Myers: “So is it your position that if the U.S. had a similar regulatory system
that you would have no objection to products like snus or Revel?”
Myers responded, “If the U.S. had a comprehensive regulatory
system, then scientists with full knowledge about the product would be able to
make appropriate comparative science claims.”
Fast forward to 2019.
FDA tobacco regulation had been in effect for a decade, operating
according to the legislative framework that Myers says he engineered. This includes an onerous application pathway
for manufacturers to convince the agency that their smoke-free products are
safer than cigarettes. Despite the
seemingly impossible task of proving a negative, Swedish Match obtained modified
risk status from the FDA for its General snus brand, allowing the company
to tell smokers that “Using General Snus instead of cigarettes puts you at a
lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and
chronic bronchitis.” Myers had testified against the application at an FDA
hearing.
In 2020, the FDA granted Philip Morris International
modified risk status for its IQOS heat-not-burn tobacco, allowing the company
to tell smokers that “Scientific studies have shown that switching completely
from conventional cigarettes to the IQOS system significantly reduces your
body’s exposure to harmful or potentially harmful chemicals.”
Myers and other tobacco prohibitionists were apoplectic
about the IQOS decision, characterizing it as “a dangerous precedent that
puts kids and public health at risk”, “making [kids] guinea pigs in a Philip
Morris marketing experiment,” and repeating “an egregious error the FDA has
made in the past” [with General Snus]. The
groups’ press release concluded that “The FDA should have denied Philip Morris’
application in its entirety.”
Make no mistake: Myers is a tobacco prohibitionist. He gave lip service to THR in 2003, feigning
support for THR contingent upon FDA regulation, as he expected to make it
nearly impossible for manufacturers to convince the FDA that they had safer
smoke-free products. When companies twice
succeeded, he reneged on his Congressional testimony and trashed the FDA.
Sadly for Myers and CTFK, more smoke-free products will be
approved by the FDA. Camel Snus and
Copenhagen moist snuff are already in the review pipeline, and it’s just a
matter of time before dozens or more e-cigarettes, vapor products and nicotine
pouches obtain safer FDA status.
