House passes tobacco regulation
NYT Article.
More than 40 years after the Surgeon General first warned that cigarettes were a health hazard, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Wednesday that would for the first time give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products.
Citing the long history of warnings about the dangers of smoking, Representative John Dingell, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee which approved the bill, said that it was hard to believe that the federal government had not yet regulated the tobacco industry.
“With this legislation, we change this,” said Mr. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat.
The White House has signaled its opposition to the bill. And while the legislation has strong support in the Senate, which could take up the measure this fall, it is not clear whether the bill has a veto-proof majority there.
The show of support for the bill in the House, which passed it by a vote of 326 to 102, illustrated not only the strength of anti-smoking sentiment in the country but also the benefit of enlisting a powerful ally. The legislation was partly the result of negotiations with Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest cigarette company, which split with other major cigarette companies by endorsing it.
Most large public health groups supported the legislation — and its House passage was immediately applauded by groups including the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association — but some anti-smoking advocates said the bargain struck with Philip Morris gave too many concessions to the industry.
The bill specifically states that the F.D.A.’s new powers would stop short of the ability to order the elimination of nicotine from tobacco products or place an outright ban on all tobacco products.
But the agency could reduce nicotine to non-addictive levels if it determined that doing so would benefit public health. The F.D.A. could also require changes in tobacco products, like the reduction or elimination of other harmful ingredients.
The bill bans flavored cigarettes that appeal to young people but exempts menthol from that ban. The menthol exemption raised objections from black anti-smoking advocates because mentholated cigarettes are most frequently chosen by black smokers.
To satisfy the Congressional Black Caucus on that issue, there were last-minute changes in the bill, to direct a scientific advisory committee to issue recommendations on menthol in cigarettes within one year.
The amendments also require the F.D.A. to publish an action plan on the advertising and promotion of menthol and other cigarettes to young people, giving priority to minority communities.
The bill was opposed by many Republicans, who split on the legislation. Many said they objected to expansion of the federal bureaucracy, and complained in particular that the F.D.A. was already unable to fulfill its work overseeing pharmaceuticals and food.
In floor discussion of the bill, John A. Boehner, the House Republican leader, a smoker, called the legislation a “boneheaded idea. ”
“How much is enough?” Mr. Boehner said. “How much government do we need? There’s not a smoker in America that doesn’t understand that smoking isn’t good for you.”
But Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who sponsored the bill, responded, “The minority leader said ‘When is enough, enough?’ Well cigarettes, one of the most dangerous products on sale today, are not regulated at all.”
The legislation would finance the F.D.A.’s tobacco supervision primarily through new fees paid by tobacco companies that are earmarked for that purpose.
If the legislation is enacted, consumers would see a wholesale revamping of the warning labels on tobacco products.
The small text messages currently on cigarette packs warning of the negative health effects of smoking would be replaced by graphic images of the physical ravages often caused by cigarettes, such as lung tumors and mouth growths.
Similar warning systems have been used in Canada, Australia and Britain with success, according to Clifford E. Douglas, executive director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network.
The bill will also require cigarette makers to provide detailed disclosure about the type and quantities of ingredients in their products — like ammonia and acetaldehyde — which are believed to work with nicotine to increase the addictiveness of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. The requirements also mean that tobacco companies would be required to disclose internal research on the biological effects of those additives.
Cigarette companies could no longer advertise their products as “light” or “ultralight” to convey the notion of less harmful ingredients. But some companies have already anticipated those strictures by packaging their products so that cigarettes packs are color-coded to denote different blends.
Under the bill, any outdoor advertising of cigarettes, and advertising in publications seen by children, would have to be in black and white, to reduce their visual allure.
House approval of the bill follows years of debate over whether tobacco products should be regulated.
While attempts to place tobacco products under the agency’s jurisdiction dates back at least to the 1980s, the impetus for current bill traces to 1995, when Dr David A. Kessler, then F.D.A. commissioner, proposed a set of regulations governing tobacco. Dr. Kessler claimed that nicotine was an addictive drug and that tobacco companies deliberately manipulated the nicotine content of their products.
President Bill Clinton signed an executive order granting the F.D.A authority to enforce those regulations, but they were overturned in 2000 when the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that that F.D.A. had no jurisdiction over tobacco products and had exceeded its legal authority.
A bill that would have placed tobacco under the agency’s jurisdiction was passed by the Senate in 2004, but never approved by the House. The bill that the House approved Wednesday was introduced in both chambers in 2007.
Comments
Post a Comment