filed suit<\/a> against the Federal Drug Administration over its tobacco policy advisory board.<\/p>\nThe two tobacco giants are claiming that the advisory panel is biased against the tobacco industry and that several members have conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n
One of the items the panel is chewing over is whether or not to recommend if menthol should be banned in cigarettes. Menthol is a continuing source of controversy in tobacco control. The FDA after it was granted regulatory authority over tobacco in 2010 quickly banned “candy-flavoured” cigarettes, but ignored menthol, well, because menthol has been around for a long time and is a huge part of the tobacco market. Lollilard’s No. 1 product, Newport, is a menthol brand. Newport brings in 90 percent of Lollilard’s revenues. It’s also the No. 1 type of cigarette for black smokers.<\/p>\n
The suit was filed in United States District Court in Washington, D.C. According to the New York Times, the cigarette makers claim that three members of the panel — “Dr. Neal L. Benowitz, Dr. Jack E. Henningfield and Dr. Jonathan M. Samet \u2014 have received tens of thousands of dollars as expert witnesses in litigation against cigarette makers and as advisers to pharmaceutical companies that make smoking cessation products. They are all university professors, researchers and national experts in the antismoking movement.”<\/p>\n
Phillip Morris made a similar complaint last year that was dismissed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don’t these douchebags ever get sick of being in court? Or are they in court so often they just see it as a normal way of life? Oh, this is too rich. RJ Reynolds and Lollilard, which are usually the defendants have actually filed suit against the Federal Drug Administration over its tobacco policy advisory … Continue reading RJ Reynolds, Lollilard suing the FDA over menthol? Really?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,34,55],"tags":[595],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fda","category-lollilard","category-rj-reynolds","tag-fda"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-6G","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":489,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=489","url_meta":{"origin":414,"position":0},"title":"FDA panel suggests banning menthol","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"March 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"An advisory panel at the Food and Drug Administration gave its suggestion last week to the agency that menthol in cigarettes should be banned. The FDA has been wrangling with the menthol issue for over a year. About a year ago, after being given regulatory control over tobacco products, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FDA"","block_context":{"text":"FDA","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/kool.jpg?fit=860%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/kool.jpg?fit=860%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/kool.jpg?fit=860%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/kool.jpg?fit=860%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3492,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3492","url_meta":{"origin":414,"position":1},"title":"FDA blocks four new RJ Reynolds brands, including Camel Crush Bold","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"September 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a really interesting story. The Food and Drug Administration, which for the most part has taken a pretty milquetoast approach to administering tobacco products ever since the agency was given regulatory authority over nicotine, just banned four new RJ Reynolds brands. RJ Reynolds, long known to tobacco control\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Tobacco"","block_context":{"text":"Big Tobacco","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Camel-brush-bold.jpg?fit=809%2C701&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Camel-brush-bold.jpg?fit=809%2C701&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Camel-brush-bold.jpg?fit=809%2C701&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Camel-brush-bold.jpg?fit=809%2C701&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3947,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3947","url_meta":{"origin":414,"position":2},"title":"African-American doctors urge banning menthol cigarettes","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"September 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"For some reason, I'm not sure why, menthol cigarettes are favoured by black smokers (interestingly, my parents were big menthol smokers for years and they were decidedly not black)... and Big Tobacco has long marketed menthols to black smokers. In fact, 75 percent of the smokers of the second biggest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "African-Americans"","block_context":{"text":"African-Americans","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=839"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/smokers600.jpg?fit=600%2C320&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/smokers600.jpg?fit=600%2C320&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/smokers600.jpg?fit=600%2C320&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4175,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4175","url_meta":{"origin":414,"position":3},"title":"San Francisco bans flavoured tobacco products","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"June 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"San Francisco voters, by an extremely wide margin, voted during California's Tuesday election to ban all flavoured tobacco products. This include sugary cigars, menthol cigarettes and most importantly, sugary- or fruity-flavoured e-cig products. That is a HUGE deal because most e-cig flavours are fruity or sugary. 68 percent voted in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "e-cigarettes"","block_context":{"text":"e-cigarettes","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=21"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/k300_flavors_fruits.jpg?fit=1200%2C836&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/k300_flavors_fruits.jpg?fit=1200%2C836&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/k300_flavors_fruits.jpg?fit=1200%2C836&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/k300_flavors_fruits.jpg?fit=1200%2C836&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/k300_flavors_fruits.jpg?fit=1200%2C836&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":406,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=406","url_meta":{"origin":414,"position":4},"title":"Department of Justice urges Big Tobacco to finally tell the truth","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting story here. The Department of Justice is urging Big Tobacco (RJ Reynolds, Altria and Lollilard) to admit that for decades, it lied about the safety of \"light\" cigarettes and that it lied about how addictive nicotine is. These \"corrective statements\" are part of a 2006 federal judge's decision\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anti-tobacco campaign"","block_context":{"text":"Anti-tobacco campaign","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4369,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4369","url_meta":{"origin":414,"position":5},"title":"Menthol cigarettes finally banned","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Menthol Cigarettes finally banned First of all, with a new presidential administration in place with Joe Biden, big changes are happening with oversight toward the tobacco industry. The big thing that happened last week is menthol cigarettes were FINALLY banned by the Food and Drug Administration last week. Also to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tobacco"","block_context":{"text":"Tobacco","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=69"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/7893d5bc6c4e75070442816d6d1bbd1e.jpg?fit=500%2C637&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}