Clearing The Air

Will Johnson & Johnson / ALZA Company, the manufacturers of Nicoderm CQ, be the new targets of nicotine lawsuits?

The irony, if true, is that Johnson & Johnson, which owns ALZA......will have brought this potential new liabilty upon itself, while attempting to eliminate its competitor.....Big Tobacco. The manner in which Johnson & Johnson Co. hastened their potential liability was to fund smoking ban efforts through its political wing the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).....efforts which were designed to increase sales of their potentially hazardous NRT's -Nicoderm & Nicoderm CQ.

Kevin provides this comment on Dr. Siegel's website.

The heart risk of Nicotine replacement therapy [NRT] is much higher than the risk of ETS even in the most extreme of exaggerations. The heart risk the risk to those with breathing disorders as well as Cancer risk of ETS is predicated primarily on those with substantial pre-existing risk already known. NRT causes heart and Internal organ damage in many with no pre-existing condition.

We have to wonder where advocates get the confidence in suggesting NRT is a viable alternative to smoking. Knowing the sales of these products are only justified in the companies own research which is known to be controlled and manipulated. Consistent studies show the products are largely ineffective in the purpose they claim to be designed for. As many as 40% of nicorette current users, are addicted to the cure. What would common sense tell you the most effective use of NRT actually is.

We hear about the primary fear of smoking based in statistical timeline effect, 30 years down the road, yet no one knows what the effects of NRT will be 30 years from today.

Where is the proof we are not replacing smoking with something much more deadly having genetic repercussions producing much larger issues? In the mean time popularity of “legal nicotine” use is on the upswing.

As it stands children have not been able to purchase cigarettes over the counter legally since the 60s yet any 10 year old child can buy Nicorette gum in exciting new flavors over the counter. Without complaint, in many cases with praise from adults who have no idea if that child is making that purchase to satisfying an addiction apparently or do they care.

What NRT represents is a moral choice, in deciding what addictive products are within social norms. Many with similar Carl like mentalities support such folly to the point they realize their own children started smoking to satisfy a need for nicotine created by their own advocacy. The Carl mentality is what smokers view as a typical TC campaign member, despite the fact there are much more dangerous characters leeching off the TC crusade as well.

I couldn't have said it better myself.......thank you Kevin.

Johnson & Johnson as well as RWJF deserve all the financial harm they've imposed on the rest of us.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 10:31 AM