Editorial: Should the FDA Ban Cigarette Filter Ventilation?

Cigarette package colour is associated with level of filter ventilation.

The cigarette package is, in many markets, the primary means of marketing and advertising cigarette brands to consumers. While some countries have moved to implement plain packaging, most continue to allow product differentiation on the basis of packaging. Colour is often used to communicate implicit messages about taste, risk and quality, and evidence suggests that package colours are specific...

E-cigarette ban proposed in Toronto.

FDA Proposes to Ban Cephalosporins from Livestock Feed

The recent ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on certain uses of cephalosporin antibiotics in food animals 1 has not won the agency much favor. Industry groups blasted the rule for intruding on veterinary practice, while food safety advocates said it was at best a minor step toward addressing broader problems with antibiotic resistance. In issuing the rule on 6 January 2012, the...

The intractable cigarette ‘filter problem’

BACKGROUND When lung cancer fears emerged in the 1950s, cigarette companies initiated a shift in cigarette design from unfiltered to filtered cigarettes. Both the ineffectiveness of cigarette filters and the tobacco industry's misleading marketing of the benefits of filtered cigarettes have been well documented. However, during the 1950s and 1960s, American cigarette companies spent millions of...

The FDA should test the safety of ECT machines ∗

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and the machines that deliver it have never been tested for safety and efficacy in order to receive approval from the FDA. The American Psychiatric Association and ECT advocates protested when the FDA took steps to classify the machines as posing “an unreasonable risk of illness or injury”, which would have required their testing before approval. Without requirin...