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FACT BRIEF

Are cigarettes approved by the FDA?

By Marlo Lee
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NO

A social media post claimed that cigarettes are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That's just not the case.

The FDA does not "approve" tobacco products, but it does regulate the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of tobacco products. There is a difference between regulating a product and approving it for use.

As the FDA itself explains, "the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act provides legal ways for new tobacco products to be marketed." That is what it oversees. 

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Food and Drug Administration About the Center for Tobacco Products
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.