As a physician – one who has dedicated his career to treating lung diseases – it has become clear to me that asking a smoker to quit, gradually cut back, or instructing smokers on the use of more traditional nicotine-replacement therapies, like nicotine gum or patches, is not as simple or as effective as it sounds. Hence, the availability and acceptability of safer tobacco and nicotine products may be critical to successfully helping adult smokers move away from traditional cigarettes. In 2017, the FDA announced in the New England Journal of Medicine that its approach to reducing the toll of disease caused by smoking would…
