Tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. has submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market one of its smokeless tobacco products as potentially less risky to health.
Henrico County-based Altria said Tuesday that its U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. subsidiary submitted the “modified risk” application to the FDA for its Copenhagen Snuff Fine Cut moist smokeless tobacco product.
Under a 2009 federal law that gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products, companies can apply to the agency to have products designated as modified risk if there is evidence they are less risky to health. Altria’s move to get FDA approval for a smokeless product comes as cigarette makers are seeking to win consumers over to alternative products — particularly noncombustible tobacco products — as U.S. smoking rates slowly decline.
