Too Little Known on Smokeless-Tobacco Risk

A key advisory committee warned the Food and Drug Administration Wednesday that little is known about the health effects of so-called modified-risk tobacco products, suggesting makers of smokeless tobacco and other alternatives to conventional cigarettes face high hurdles before they can market them as less harmful. The report by the Institute of Medicine coincided with another government-sponsored study showing cigarette use hitting historic lows among U.S. teenagers, even as more youths have turned in recent years to smokeless products such as moist snuff and pouches called snus. The FDA is studying whether to allow companies to advertise some tobacco products.