US call to curb cigarette sales

Cigarettes should not be marketed, says Dr Kessler

A leading offical from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is calling for cigarettes to only be sold to those who are already addicted to them.

In a new book, Dr David Kessler says that as a business, the American tobacco industry should be dismantled and operate only as a strictly supervised supplier to "cigarette addicts".

Companies would not be allowed to market cigarettes in any form, and any revenue generated should only be used to cover production and transport costs, he says.

You cannot ethically allow companies to make a profit

Dr David Kessler

The book is being seen as a further blow to the beleaguered US tobacco industry, which is already reeling from a recent series of successful prosecutions made against it by lung cancer sufferers.

Dr Kessler's call is supported by recently published statistics revealing that smoking has fallen by 16% during the last decade in California, the state with the harshest anti-smoking laws.

Cigarettes 'unethical'

"Although nicotine and cigarettes have to remain available, you cannot ethically allow companies to make a profit," he said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper.

Cigarettes should only be available to addicts, argues Dr Kessler

"Ultimately, cigarettes should be sold in brown paper wrappers, with only a brand name and a warning label," he writes in his book, A Question of Intent: America's Struggle against a Deadly Industry.

The book details the FDA's five-year investigation into the US tobacco industry, which uncovered some of its deepest secrets.

Among its disclosures is the revelation that specially bred Brazilian high-nicotine tobacco was covertly introduced into some American cigarettes to make them more addictive.

The agency also uncovered evidence that tobacco companies had deliberately aimed marketing campaigns at children.

'Powerful' industry

The book ends with the stark conclusion that while the FDA's investigation has bolstered state lawsuits against the tobacco industry, millions of Americans remain hooked.

The US industry 'deliberately aimed marketing at children'

"I had underestimated the enormous power of the industry," said Dr Kessler.

"I don't think people know the extent to which their tentacles really reached," he added.

President Clinton's administration sued the industry in 1999, accusing it of putting profits before health by concealing data showing that nicotine is addictive, and smoking causes disease.