FDA Warns Online Retailers About Illegally Marketing Tobacco Products with Misleading Claims

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent warning letters to online retailers for illegally marketing tobacco products using misleading health claims. The letter said the 11 retailers had illegally marketed tobacco products using words such as ‘light,’ ‘less toxic,’ ‘mild,’ ‘safer’ or ‘low.’

Drug Store News reported that the FDA regards these terms as misleading and unsubstantiated.

“There is no known safe tobacco product,” FDA Center for Tobacco Products Director, Lawrence Deyton, stated in an FDA press release. “It is illegal for tobacco companies or retailers, including Internet sellers, to make unsubstantiated claims or statements that imply tobacco products reduce health risks.”

The FDA stated that the companies had violated the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act by marketing these products as safer or healthier without receiving an order from the FDA that allowed them to market a product using these claims based on scientific evidence. The FDA has not issued any such orders.