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WHY FDA REGULATION OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS IS NEEDED
- This year, the U.S. Congress has a truly historic opportunity to protect our children from tobacco addiction and save lives. It can do so by passing legislation to grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco products. All our state’s U.S. senators and representatives should support this important legislation and make it a priority to pass it this year.
- Identical, bipartisan bills have been introduced in the Senate and the House to give the FDA authority over tobacco products. The Senate bill, S. 625, is sponsored by U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John Cornyn (R-TX), while the House bill, H.R. 1108, is sponsored by Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA).
- This legislation would give the FDA the authority to:
- Crack down on tobacco marketing and sales to children.
- Ban candy-flavored cigarettes, which clearly are aimed at kids.
- Require disclosure of the contents of tobacco products and tobacco industry research about the health effects of their products.
- Require changes in tobacco products such as the removal of harmful ingredients.
- Stop tobacco companies from making health claims about their products that are not scientifically proven or that would discourage current tobacco users from quitting or encourage new users to start.
- Require larger, more effective health warnings on tobacco products.
- Prohibit terms such as "light", "mild" and "low-tar" that mislead consumers into believing that certain cigarettes are safer than others.
- The need for FDA authority over tobacco products is clear. Tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death in our country. More than 9,500 Tennesseans will die from tobacco use this year and Tennessee will spend more then $2.16 billions on health care costs related to tobacco. Every year, more than 9,400 kids become addicted, and one-third of them will die prematurely as a result.
- Unbelievably, despite all the death and disease they cause, tobacco products are exempt from basic health regulations that apply to other products such as food, drugs and even dog food. It’s unacceptable that one of the most deadly products sold in America is one of the least regulated products sold in America. It’s time for Congress to end this special protection for the tobacco industry and protect our children and our health instead.
- Because they are not regulated, the tobacco companies continue to market their deadly and addictive products to our children. They continue to deceive consumers about the harm their products cause, make changes to their products without disclosing them, and resist any meaningful change to make their products less harmful.
- Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including at least 69 that cause cancer. These dangerous chemicals include arsenic, formaldehyde, ammonia and radioactive Polonium-210. Yet most Americans don’t know what’s really in a cigarette because tobacco companies are not required to disclose the contents of their products or to remove dangerous ingredients. This legislation would force the tobacco companies to disclose what is in their products, to take out dangerous chemicals and to stop marketing these deadly and addictive products to our kids.
Recent events show why it is so important that Congress pass this legislation.
U.S. Government’s Landmark Tobacco Lawsuit
- On August 17, 2006, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler found that the major tobacco companies have violated civil racketeering laws and defrauded the American people by lying for decades about the health risks of smoking and their marketing to children.
- Judge Kessler also found that the tobacco companies’ wrongdoing, including their marketing to children, continues today: "The evidence in this case clearly establishes that Defendants have not ceased engaging in unlawful activity.”
Studies Show Increased Levels of Nicotine
- Two recent studies – one by the Massachusetts Department of Health and the other by the Harvard School of Public Health – have found that the tobacco companies have secretly and significantly increased the levels of nicotine in cigarette smoke since 1998.
- The tobacco companies can secretly increase nicotine levels because no federal agency has regulatory authority over cigarette ingredients. Until Congress grants the FDA authority over tobacco, the tobacco companies can continue to make changes that could make their products even more harmful or more addictive without anyone knowing about it.
Misleading Claims About “Reduced Risk Products”
- The tobacco companies have taken advantage of their unregulated status to introduce so-called “reduced risk” cigarettes with claims like “all of the taste…less of the toxins” and “reduced carcinogens, premium taste.” However, no government agency currently has the authority to make sure these claims are scientifically proven and the products are marketed responsibly.
- These misleading claims can lead to a repeat of the public health disaster caused by the marketing of “light” and “low-tar” cigarettes. Millions of smokers switched to these brands thinking they were safer or would help them quit only to find out decades later that neither is true and the tobacco companies knew this all along.
Marketing to Children
- The tobacco companies have easily gotten around the minimal restrictions placed on their marketing by the 1998 state tobacco settlement. Since the settlement, they have more than doubled their marketing to at least $15.4 billion a year – more than $42 million every day, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
- Much of tobacco marketing continues to appeal to children. A March 2007 poll by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids found that teens are nearly twice as likely as adults to recall having seen tobacco advertising in the previous two weeks. That’s not surprising as tobacco companies continue to advertise in magazines popular with kids and in stores where kids often hang out.
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