False advertising for food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics

(a) An advertisement of a food, drug, device, or cosmetic shall be deemed to be false if it is false or misleading in any particular. (b) For the purpose of this part the advertisement of a drug or device representing it to have any effect in albuminuria, appendicitis, arteriosclerosis, blood poison, bone disease, Bright's disease, cancer, carbuncles, cholecystitis, diabetes, diphtheria, dropsy, erysipelas, gallstones, heart and vascular diseases, high blood pressure, mastoiditis, measles, meningitis, mumps, nephritis, otitis media, paralysis, pneumonia, poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis), prostate gland disorders, pyelitis, scarlet fever, sexual impotence, sinus infection, smallpox, tuberculosis, tumors, typhoid, uremia, or venereal disease shall also be deemed to be false, except that no advertisement not in violation of subsection (a) shall be deemed to be false under this subsection if it is disseminated only to members of the medical, osteopathic, podiatric, dental, or veterinary professions, or appears only in the scientific periodicals of these professions, or is disseminated only for the purpose of public health education by persons not commercially interested, directly or indirectly, in the sale of such drugs or devices; provided that whenever the department determines that an advance in medical science has made any type of self-medication safe as to any of the diseases named above, the department shall by regulation authorize the advertisement of drugs having curative or therapeutic effect for such disease, subject to such conditions and restrictions as the department may deem necessary in the interest of public health; provided that this subsection shall not be construed as indicating that self-medication for diseases other than those named herein is safe or efficacious.