Brothers & Sisters of the Leaf - be concerned, be very concerned...
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revealed that it is looking to acquire a Cigar Smoking Machine with a Carbon Monoxide (CO) Analyzer.
The analyzer will allow the FDA to collect data and information on CO from cigars, which will most certianly be utilized to impart their influence on current and future cigar brands. The FDA Office of Acquisitions and Grants Services announced the plan to acquire the machine on February 22, 2016 with a solicitation via the federal contract opportunity FDA-16-SOL-1162066 for analytical laboratory instrument manufacturing. Click HERE for the actual full-text solicitation.
The current machine the FDA is seeking is the Cerulean SM410CV, which is supposed to collect smoke residues to facilitate further chemical analyses and increase their capabilities to study cigars, thereby enabling them to set standards for cigar manufacturers. The deadline for responses to the solicitation was 12 noon today, February 29th.
Smokeasy will be keeping an eye on further developments on this - suggest you do likewise...