Tobacco Should be Regulated by FDA

Fourteen years after tobacco officials steadfastly maintained that nicotine was not addictive, the House of Representatives took a huge step Thursday toward regulating tobacco products.

It’s expected that the Food and Drug Administration will have that authority later this year. The House passed the measure by a 3-1 margin, and the Senate is expected to follow suit later this month.

We support FDA regulation of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who also chaired the now-famous industry hearing in 1994, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act wouldn’t let the agency ban tobacco outright. But the FDA will be able to regulate the contents of tobacco products, make their ingredients public, prohibit flavoring, require larger warning labels and strictly control or prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.

We support the added regulation because reducing the number of new smokers will save millions of lives and billions of dollars. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States – more than 400,000 deaths each year. And approximately 8.6 million Americans have chronic illnesses related to smoking.

According to the bill, reducing tobacco use by minors by half would prevent 10 million of today’s children from becoming daily smokers and would save 3 million of them from premature death. This type of reduction also would save an estimated $75 billion in lower health care costs.

It would seem that all these benefits would make supporting this bill an easy step, especially for a doctor. But freshman Congressman Phil Roe, a Republican representing the 1st District in Tennessee, does not back the measure and says FDA regulation is not the right way to curb smoking.

He said in a news release that the legislation “would open the door to FDA regulation of farms and that the agency could not meet the demands of its current mission.”

The bill would not allow the FDA to regulate farms growing tobacco. In fact, it clearly explains that the agriculture secretary continues to have authority for all aspects of growing, cultivation and curing of raw tobacco.

Critics, like Roe, have said the FDA won’t be able to meet its current mission. But failing to regulate an addictive drug that, when used as directed, causes cancer is irresponsible. And the industry repeatedly has proven it cannot be trusted when it comes to marketing.

Adults do not pick up smoking – children do. And marketing is geared to entice children. The tobacco industry spent an estimated $13 billion in 2005 to attract new users, retain current ones, increase consumption and generate favorable attitudes toward smoking and tobacco use, according to the bill.

Waxman maintains that advertising, marketing and promotion of tobacco products have been particularly directed to young people and been successful.

“Past efforts to oversee these activities have not been successful in adequately preventing increased use,” the bill states.

In other words, the tobacco industry cannot regulate itself and agree to not market to children. It needs new customers, and children are its main targets.

This has been proven in documented court cases, several of which are noted in the legislation.

In August 2006, a U.S. district court judge found that the major U.S. cigarette companies continue to target and market to youth (USA v. Philip Morris, USA, Inc., et al.). It also noted that the major cigarette companies “dramatically increased their advertising and promotional spending in ways that encourage youth to start smoking subsequent to the signing of the Master Settlement Agreement in 1998.”

The cigarette manufacturers need to keep finding new customers to replace those who quit, get sick or die. Young people are the most likely target audience, since studies show that more than 80 percent of regular smokers start before age 18.

Tobacco industry documents have shown that young people are a crucial part of the tobacco market and are most easily influenced by price cuts, sports advertising and placement in movies.

Roe’s assertion about family farms overlooks Agriculture Department limitations and the obvious marketing ploys aimed at teens and younger children that would be banned under the Waxman bill.
Roe notes in his statement that the FDA costs are estimated at $2.1 billion over five years and nearly $5.4 billion over 10 years.

Again, the estimated health care savings are $75 billion if the number of young smokers is reduced by half. We think the lives that could be saved and the dollars saved to society make this bill a painfully obvious one to support.

“FDA regulation of cigarettes – the most lethal of all consumer products – is long overdue,” Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a companion bill sponsor. “I am confident that the Senate will approve it expeditiously.”

We hope so.