Altria is urging FDA to spread the word that nicotine does not cause cancer

Totean Marlboro.

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A Marlboro Altria parent is urging the Food and Drug Administration to help spread the word that nicotine does not cause cancer.

CNBC on Thursday received a copy of a letter Altria sent to the FDA asking the agency to help get the message out about nicotine as part of a proposed advertising campaign about the dangers involved. tobacco use.

“We have received the letter and will provide a direct response to the company,” FDA spokeswoman Alison Hunt told CNBC in an email.

Altria was not immediately available for comment.

In the letter, dated Feb. 25 and signed by Paige C. Magness, senior vice president of regulatory affairs, Altria called for government investigations into the misconceptions about nicotine. He said clearing these misconceptions would help traditional smokers move to infertile ways to use nicotine that may be more dangerous than products with smoke.

Bloomberg News first reported the letter Thursday.

While Altria’s majority of its income comes from the sale of cigarettes and cigarettes, they also own the vaping company Juul and nicotine pouch brand On !, and it markets IQOS, a smokeless tobacco product that heats tobacco instead of burning it, in the USA

Cigarette smoke contains at least 60 carcinogens, but these new products deliver nicotine without the smoke.

As Altria’s regulator, the FDA can determine what claims it can make about its results. The FDA has allowed Altria to market IQOS as giving consumers less knowledge of harmful chemicals than cigarette smoke.

Nicotine is the ingredient that makes tobacco addictive, and may have other adverse health effects. In his report, Bloomberg said studies have shown that nicotine can inhibit brain development and birth outcomes and act as an agricultural poison in large doses.

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