Anti-smoking drug Chantix banned by second transportation regulatory board

The irony of course is that the phamaceutical nicotine industry which manufactures these smoking cessation products initiated smoking bans by funding non-profit groups to lobby in favor of laws which all but mandates the use of their replacement nicotine products and drugs.

First the FAA banned Chantix use, now it's the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issuing the following ban "to not qualify anyone currently using this medication for commercial motor vehicle licenses."

The Federal Aviation Administration banned the drug for pilots and air traffic controllers on Wednesday, hours after seeing the study, which reported that Chantix was linked to 988 serious events in the last quarter of 2007 alone.

From another headline comes the following excerpt:

A SUDDEN TURN: Daniel Williams was driving his pickup on a country road in Louisiana when, according to his passenger, his eyes rolled back in his head and he swerved left — into a bayou. His doctor later made the connection to Chantix, which Williams had just begun taking.

photo courtesy of :

http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/2008/05/chantix-found-in-ad-agencys-wastebasket.html

The study linking Chantix to adverse health effects concluded:

....possible links to seizures, dizziness, heart irregularity, depression, diabetes and more than 100 accidents.

Diabetes?......that's an interesting side effect, and one that Clearing the Air chronicled back in April of 2007 with this article:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/04/quitting-smoking-is-not-always-best.html

I hate to say we told you so, but Clearing the Air has been ahead of the curve on several fronts.

1) Warning readers about the reported hazards of Chantix

2) Informing the public that smoking bans are funded by greedy, unethical pharmaceutical interests to promote alternative nicotine product sales.

3) And reporting that smoking bans are very bad for businesses, jobs, and the economy.