(Las Vegas, NV) – Citizen Outreach, a non-profit organizations whose mission is to put the public back into public policy by educating and advocating for limited-government principles and public policies, has stated its opposition to U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) proposed flavored cigar ban “in the name of citizen empowerment.”
In a comment addressed to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, Citizen Outreach President Chuck Muth maintains, “Putting the public back into public policy should be the name of the game in public health,” citing The Centers for Disease Control’s emphasis on promoting health “through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private communities, and individuals.”
Muth upbraids FDA for going “in precisely the opposite direction in its tobacco regulation” by withholding information from the public on the relative safety of various forms of tobacco, including cigars, for which “(r)esearchers and public health experts insist that there is little if any evidence that consumption is endangering the health of adult users to the degree that would justify a ban of a large percentage of the products they enjoy in moderation.”
In further questioning the FDA’s rationale of reducing youth usage and initiation, Muth points to already “minute” youth usage that is also “falling dramatically according to the most recent National Youth Tobacco Survey” and the Agency’s “thin gruel” of “evidence of any effect on youth initiation” based on “extrapolations from a few studies.”
“Instead of pursuing a destructive misinformation campaign on the health hazards of cigars and other non-cigarette forms of tobacco,” Citizen Outreach urges FDA and CDC to “empower citizens to make their own informed health choices.”
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