As part of its campaign to wreck the federal government, Brian King, head of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, has been put on administrative leave. He has been reportedly offered a job with a regional office of the Indian Health Service that includes Alaska. (According to the New York Times, “Some senior leaders based in the Washington, D.C., area received notices that they were being reassigned to Indian Health Service territories, a tactic to force people out, employees said, because it would entail moving to other parts of the country.”) This is a huge loss because Brian has been an effective leader who has helped drive youth e-cigarette use down dramatically.
According to the AP, “Dozens of other employees in FDA’s tobacco center also received notices of dismissal Tuesday morning, including two entire offices responsible for drafting new tobacco regulations and setting policy.”
I have also been told that Matthew Farrelly, the head of the Office of Science, which, among other things, does product reviews, has also been offered a position in the Indian Health Service. Like Brian, Matthew has a strong reputation as a tobacco researcher with a commitment to public health.
The FDA Center for Tobacco Products Department of Public Health Education is also gone.
Overall, the FDA has been neutered as even a potential force to regulate tobacco or fight the tobacco epidemic.
I have also heard that the entire CDC Office on Smoking or Health has been laid off, but do not know any details.
The tobacco industry is getting a great return on the $10,143,999 it invested in the 2024 Trump campaign.
Stanton Glantz blog 
Stan, Megan from ASH said the HHS Global Affairs was also being gutted.
A friend of mine said her son worked in FDA Tobacco Enforcement and his entire group was let go.
The heroin worm brain looks like he is a nicotine addict. He was using nicotine pouches at his confirmation hearing. He was photographed with a Zyn container coming out of a store.
And we know RAI gave $10,000,000, but with all the dark money, do we really know how much? And don’t forget Susie Wiles the Swisher Lobbyist.
Bad, Bad!
Joel Dunnington MD,FACR
1036 Monerra Ln., Timnath CO, 80547
jsdunnington@outlook.comjsdunnington@outlook.com
281-387-6770
Retired Professor of Diagnostic Radiology UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Vice Chair of the Board ANR/ANRF
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No one should accept this Trump gutting of OSH and CTP as a done deal or as legal or acceptable Administrative or Executive action. By making it much more difficult, if not impossible, for CTP to administer and enforce the TCA and for OSH to administer the laws it operated under, these actions by Trump directly contradict Congressional intent and directly violate his Constitutional duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” (Article II, Section 3). The dismissals or forced reassignments of staff also likely violate applicable federal employment laws. The fact that there is no rational basis for these actions (and no replacement staff ready not new strategies for using the CTP funding ready) make them arbitrary and capricious (and thereby likely illegal) administrative actions), and the fact that they could be prompted by a desire to payback the tobacco industry for its contributions and other political support makes it all the more heinous and subject to judicial correction. Someone with the resources to do so should file lawsuits against these Trump efforts to gut CTP and possibly eliminate OSH in order to block or get them rescinded.
Eric Lindblom
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