FDA: Not such Breathable Foods

Following on NY Senator Charles Schumer’s request last December, the FDA has sent a Warning Letter to Breathable Foods, Inc. for its marketing of the AeroShot caffeine inhaler, which commits a multitude of violations against law and common sense. It’s kind of a long letter, and I hope I’m not the only one here who enjoyed every word as the officer meticulously spells out the difference between inhalation and ingestion in great glottal and epiglottal detail. Just to clarify so they understand that breathing and swallowing aren’t interchangeable to most people.

As I noted earlier in this case, the inventor, David Edwards of Harvard, and the young student who became CEO for the company, Thomas Hadfield, have both seemingly been operating on the blithe assumption that if they didn’t think about safety for more than a few dismissive minutes, neither would anyone else. Unfortunately, given the breadth of the mostly unregulated “dietary supplements” market, they may be partly right. If they weren’t both so high-profile, they might not have been noticed so quickly.

As it is, I would be very surprised if by this time next year, the product, the CEO, or the professor himself weren’t gone with the wind.