A Marlboro cigarette.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Marlboro’s mother, Altria, is asking the Food and Drug Administration to help spread the word that nicotine does not cause cancer.
Bloomberg News said it analyzed a letter that Altria sent to the FDA asking the agency to help spread the nicotine message as part of an advertising campaign proposal on the risks of tobacco use.
“We received the letter and will respond directly to the company,” FDA spokeswoman Alison Hunt told CNBC via email. Altria was not immediately available for comment.
In the letter, Altria cited government studies on misperceptions around nicotine and said the move would be crucial in helping traditional smokers transition to non-combustible nicotine methods.
Although the vast majority of Altria’s revenue comes from the sale of cigarettes and cigars, it also has a stake in the vaporization company Juul, a nicotine handbag brand On! and markets IQOS, a smokeless tobacco product that heats tobacco instead of burning it, in the US
There are at least 60 carcinogens in cigarette smoke, but these newer products release nicotine without burning it. As a regulator of Altria, the FDA can determine what claims it can make about its products.
The FDA allowed Altria to market IQOS as providing users with less exposure to harmful chemicals than cigarette smoke.
Nicotine is the ingredient that makes tobacco addictive and can have other negative impacts. The article mentions studies that have shown that nicotine can interfere with brain development and birth outcomes, and acts as an agricultural poison in large doses.
Read the full Bloomberg story here.