Is the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Even Capable of Being Honest?

In a press release issued last Friday, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids once again accused the tobacco companies of marketing cotton candy e-cigarettes to youth.

The press release states: "This bill would make it much harder for the FDA to limit the sale or marketing of these products and, by making current products the industry standard, much easier for tobacco companies to continue marketing products in kid-friendly flavors like cotton candy and cherry crush."

The Rest of the Story

After an extensive internet search, I am unable to find a single tobacco company that markets cotton candy e-cigarettes.

It is now clear that the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' repeated false statements are not merely a careless mistake. They are intentionally lying to the public in order to create a story that fits their pre-conceived model.

In my view, this behavior violates the public health code of ethics. Two key principles in this code are "truth telling" and "transparency" (i.e., not concealing information).

Not only is the Campaign failing to tell the truth regarding cotton candy e-cigarettes but it is also concealing information about the actual effect of the Cole-Bishop rider on the FDA's ability to restrict the marketing of e-cigarettes to youth. This amendment would not curtail the FDA's ability to regulate the marketing of e-cigarettes at all. The FDA remains free to promulgate any regulations it wants to restrict marketing of these products to youth. All the amendment does is to make it more difficult to market deadly tobacco cigarettes by ensuring that competition from much safer tobacco-free vapor products can continue. But the FDA is free to subject those products to any marketing restrictions that it deems advisable.

Honesty is critical in public health not only because it is essential to ethical conduct, but also because without it we risk losing the public's trust. The actions of the Campaign are therefore quite selfish: they are risking the credibility of the entire tobacco control movement just so that they can tell a more damning story about the tobacco industry to potential donors.