FDA Roundup: Menthol Cigarettes, CT Scans, No Go on Jet-Lag Drug
A few items of interest involving the FDA:
Congress last year added the tobacco industry to the FDA’s regulatory mix and today a panel of health experts making up the agency’s new Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee is kicking off a two-day meeting. First on the agenda: how menthol flavoring in cigarettes affects smokers’ habits.
Small wonder that menthol is getting early attention, says the New York Times, which notes menthol butts account for almost a third of the $70 billion U.S. cigarette market. After more meetings, the advisory panel will send recommendations to the FDA, which could eventually decide to ban menthol products or take steps to curtail their marketing, Dow Jones Newswires says.
At a meeting of a separate FDA advisory panel today, experts will hear testimony about the amount of radiation exposure Americans receive from CT imaging scans and whether the benefits of the technology are worth the cancer risk from overuse.
The issue is well-traveled territory (see here, here and here), but the NYT reported earlier this week that FDA bosses had ignored warnings from its scientists about routine use of CT scans for colon cancer. A former FDA scientist told the panel today that he was fired after raising […]
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