The Food and Drug Administration will meet this week to discuss the public health impact of tobacco known as soluble tobacco, some say resemble candy, including their use in children.

Soluble tobacco products which include Camel Orbs, Camel and Camel Strips sticks made RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co., are relatively new. The company introduced these products in 2009, promoting them as a way to enjoy tobacco in places where smoking is prohibited. They all contain nicotine and dissolve in the mouth. They are not intended to help people quit smoking.
Because they do not produce tobacco smoke or cigarette litter, “they are more in line with social expectations regarding tobacco use today,” according to the 2010 statement of RJ Reynolds.

However, doctors have expressed concern that these products may appeal to young people and lead to nicotine addiction in young Orbs age.Camel round, there are peppermint, cinnamon, and remind Tic TAC or M & Ms, said the authors of the paper in 2010, Journal of Pediatrics.
“It’s deceptive,” Dan Jacobsen, a nurse practitioner at the Center for Tobacco Control, part of the coastal Long Island Jewish North of the health system in Great Neck, New York, said of the product. For a child, “it does not look dangerous, it’s not like the fact that they are going to become addicted to,” Jacobsen said.
Trying scented products can start children on the path of addiction; it’s hard to get away, said Jacobson, a former smoker. “I think that is definitely a danger to children,” he said.
The company Star Scientific, Inc, and makes two of tobacco, intended to dissolve in your mouth.
Nicotine overdose.
Nicotine overdose
One problem is that young children may be mistakenly soluble tobacco chocolates, and experience of nicotine overdose.
In children, nicotine can cause symptoms ranging from nausea and vomiting, to seizures and death. Just one milligram of nicotine can cause vomiting in a child, Jacobsen said.
Camel soluble tobacco products contain between 0.6 mg and 3.1 mg nicotine, and even one high-dose nicotine Orb Stick or can lead to severe reactions to a young child, Jacobsen said.

Caring for older kids is that they could consume these products without the knowledge of adults, Jacobsen said, because the product is hidden in the mouth.
Because soluble tobacco products so new, long-term health effects (excluding nicotine dependence) is not yet clear.
However, studies on the composition of the products indicate that they seem to contain “some of the same chemicals linked to cancer risk in other tobacco products,” said Dr. David Katz, director of prevention research at Yale University School of Medicine.
“Given their close association with products known to cause egregious harm, the precautionary principle requires that we consider these products dangerous until proven safe, rather than the other way around,” Katz said.
A 2008 study showed that users of other smokeless tobacco products, including tobacco and snuff spit, if 80 percent higher risk of oral cancer than non-users, Jacobsen said.

Change in marketing

The sale of soluble tobacco depends on the age restricted package comes with the same health warnings as other tobacco products, as well as packages is child, RJ Reynolds in 2010 said in a statement.
However, even such precautions as child-resistant packaging is usually enough to stop children from using hazardous products, Jacobsen said.
The company should get rid of the image spot on soluble tobacco and replace it with a strong visual warning on the health effects of tobacco, Jacobsen said.
Fragrance products should also be limited, Jacobsen said.
“If you have that chocolate flavored or cherry flavored, who is really marketing?” Jacobsen said. “A middle-age man whose been smoking cigarettes his whole life? No, it’s not.”

Tags: FDA scrutiny, Soluble tobacco products, tobacco products

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