Concerned that new types of cigarettes, snuff and other tobacco products are filling store shelves despite a law meant to prevent the introduction of new tobacco products, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) joined with 35 other organizations to demand that the FDA explains what it will do about this serious public health concern.

A letter to Mitchell Zeller, J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, on February 26 voiced concerns that multiple new tobacco products have met the pre-market review provisions required by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) of 2009. Under the law, a new tobacco product cannot legally be marketed in the United States unless the FDA has issued an order that it is “appropriate for the protection of the public health” or it is “substantially equivalent” to a predicate tobacco product — defined as a product that either was marketed before Feb. 15, 2007, or was itself previously found to be substantially equivalent to another predicate product. New products also can be deemed substantially equivalent if they have different characteristics than a predicate tobacco product but can be shown not to raise any different public health concerns.

Read the letter HERE