In 1996 and 1997, St. Peter's Medical Center and the American Society of Addiction Medicine held two conferences to explore the implications of products that claimed to deliver nicotine to smokers more safely than cigarettes (e.g., nicotine patch and gum, nicotine nasal spray and, most recently, cigarette-like devices that deliver less nicotine and other harmful substances than traditional cigarettes).

Key Results

• The first conference, "Exploring Alternatives to Abstinence for Nicotine Dependence," was held on May 23, 1996 in Newark, N.J., with 23 attendees from government, academia and nonprofit organizations.

The second conference, "Alternative Nicotine Delivery Systems: Harm Reduction and Public Health," was held on March 21–23, 1997 in Toronto, with almost 100 participants.

Key Recommendations

A committee revised the conference presentations and made policy recommendations for Nicotine and Public Health, a book published by the American Public Health Association in 2000. Among the recommendations:

• No nicotine delivery device should be brought to market without prior approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• The regulatory system should be flexible and nonpolitical to allow for rapid regulatory changes if products previously believed safe are found to have harmful effects.
• Terms such as "light," "mild" and "low tar" should not be used to describe or name tobacco products.

Funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the first conference with a $27,883 grant to St. Peter's and the second with a $194,135 grant to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.