FDA Tells R.J. Reynolds to Stop Selling Four Cigarette Products

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday ordered tobacco company R.J. Reynolds to stop selling four cigarette products. It is the first time the agency has ordered a major tobacco company to stop selling products, according to NPR.

The four products are Camel Bold Crush, Vantage Tech 13 and the regular and menthol versions of Pall Mall Deep Set Recessed Filter cigarettes. The FDA has ordered companies to stop selling products before, but they involved much smaller companies with much less popular products, the article notes.

According to the FDA, R.J. Reynolds failed to prove the four products were no more dangerous than brands that have been on the market for a longer time.

“These decisions were based on a rigorous, science-based review designed to protect the public from the harms caused by tobacco use,” Mitch Zeller, Director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement. “The agency will continue to review product submissions and exercise its legal authority and consumer protection duty to remove products from the market when they fail to meet the public health bar set forth under law.”

Under powers given to it by Congress, the FDA can require tobacco companies to prove new products pose no more risks to smokers than cigarettes that were on the market before February 15, 2007.

“The scientific basis for these four decisions include a failure to demonstrate that increased yields of harmful or potentially harmful constituents, higher levels of menthol, and/or the addition of new ingredients in the currently marketed products – when compared to the predicate products – do not raise different questions of public health,” the FDA stated.

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