Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, said there is no evidence that laser therapy works in helping smokers quit, according to an article on the website of Arizona's largest newspaper, The Arizona Republic.

On June 20, The Chicago Tribune, on it’s website, quoted Kevin Tynan of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago as saying the American Lung Association “does not endorse laser therapy as a form of smoking cessation.  There is no evidence that it works.”

The FDA has not approved the use of lasers for smoking cessation.  The Associated Press article revealed how the various laser smoking-cessation centers that are springing up across the country have been getting away with what they are doing.

They have been claiming that when they irradiate customers with laser energy, and charge them for this service, they are actually conducting clinical trials, conducting research in other words. 

But according to the Associated Press story as presented by the Arizona Republic, the laser centers they checked with were not seriously gathering follow-up data on their customers.

This led Dr. Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, to ask, “How can you run a clinical trial without collecting data?  I don’t understand that." 

Dr. Edelman concluded that these revelations were "pointing to the fact it is snake oil.”