The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should ease restrictions on over-the-counter nicotine-replacement products so that consumers can purchase stop-smoking aids as easily as they can buy cigarettes, said New York State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D.

Daines this week filed a petition with the FDA to allow nicotine patches, gums, lozenges and related products to be sold at all retail outlets that sell cigarettes, such as convenience stores, gas stations and grocery stores. Daines also requested that FDA allow stop-smoking aids to be sold in daily-dose packs at a price comparable to that of a pack of cigarettes, and that warning labels on smoking-cessation products be modified so that risks are presented relative to those of continuing to smoke cigarettes.

"The FDA is standing in the way of smokers' easy access to safe nicotine products," said Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Tobacco Dependence Program at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

"Under the current system, a smoker generally cannot buy safe nicotine in the same store where cigarettes are sold, and, even though most smokers buy cigarettes one day at a time, those who purchase safe nicotine must buy a one- or two-week supply costing $20 to $40," said Daines. "New York's petition sets in motion a process requiring the FDA to critically examine how these products are now sold to smokers and how we can make them more readily available."

"Many smokers are confused about the safety of nicotine patches, gum and lozenges, mistakenly believing that nicotine causes cancer or that patches are more likely than cigarettes to cause a heart attack," added Gary Giovino, Ph.D., professor of health behavior at the University at Buffalo. "By educating consumers and making these products more widely available, smokers will begin to see them as real alternatives to cigarettes and a product they can use to quit smoking altogether."