RICHMOND, Va. — Tobacco-maker Star Scientific says it has developed a moist smokeless tobacco with lower levels of cancer-causing chemicals than any other tobacco product now on the market.
The small company, which sells tobacco lozenges that dissolve in the mouth, said Tuesday it plans to ask the Food and Drug Administration this quarter for approval to sell the new item as safer than any competing product. Star Scientific hopes its products will be the first that the federal agency allows to be marketed as less harmful than other forms of tobacco.
Star Scientific says the “modified-risk” label that the FDA is developing belongs on the new Stonewall Moist-BDL because it contains 90 percent to 99 percent less tobacco-specific carcinogens than other smokeless tobacco products.
The federal Centers for Disease Control says that, because smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents, it is not a safe substitute for smoking cigarettes. But a 2007 report from the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Physicians suggests that some smokeless tobacco products are less harmful than cigarettes. The Associated Press; AP file photo
