TO SLASH the death toll from tobacco, governments should make cigarettes
safer rather than attempt to eradicate smoking in one step, a group of experts
concluded this week. The committee, assembled by the Royal College of
Physicians, said new regulation is needed to ensure cigarettes satisfy addicts’
nicotine cravings without greatly increasing their risk of cancer or heart
disease. “It may be necessary to accept, albeit reluctantly, the intractability
of widespread nicotine addiction in the short to medium term,” their report
concludes.
“A government agency should make sure nicotine delivery systems are as safe
as any other drug delivery system,”…
