Tobacco giant Philip Morris USA is urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to adopt a regulatory plan that would encourage smokers who can't or won't quit tobacco to switch to less-harmful smokeless tobacco.

Philip Morris and US Smokeless Tobacco Company, both units of Altria Group, said in a letter to the FDA late last month that a regulatory framework that takes into account the "continuum of risk" of different types of tobacco products could "have a significant public health benefit". The companies, based in Richmond, Va, filed the letter as part of a public-comment period. (pi)