Of the more than 7,000 chemicals in tobacco and tobacco smoke, at least 93 can really mess you up, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is now requiring the tobacco companies to divulge exactly how much of exactly which potentially harmful chemicals are present in their products.
Flexing the new tobacco control muscles it grew from the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, the FDA announced that tobacco companies will be required to report the chemicals that FDA calls Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents (HPHCs) -- "that cause, or could cause, harm to tobacco users or non-users" in all of their products, including smokeless tobacco products.
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In the initial phase of enforcement, the tobacco companies will have until the end of 2012 to report the presence and quantities in their products of any of 20 chemicals appearing on an initial list of 93 harmful chemicals.
The FDA chose these 20 chemicals because they are easy for laboratories to identify and are representative of the chemicals on the larger list of 93 HPHCs. Eventually, the tobacco companies will be required to use the full list of 93 chemicals when submitting their reports to the FDA.
All 93 chemicals have been identified by the FDA as causes or possible causes of cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems, developmental or reproductive problems, and addiction to tobacco products.
According to the FDA, the results of the HPHCs reports will be made available to the public by April 2013 in a "consumer-friendly format."
"This will be important new information for American consumers, who -- for the first time -- will know which harmful and potentially harmful chemicals are in tobacco products," said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D., in a press release "And, as industry discloses information about harmful and potentially harmful chemicals in its products to FDA, we are building knowledge about tobacco products to help us to make science-based regulatory decisions that improve the public health."
