Lives will be saved with tobacco regulation
Congress has passed, and President Barack Obama has signed, historic legislation that will give federal regulators authority to regulate the tobacco industry.
It’s long overdue as smoking results in billions of dollars in health care expenses annually.
The bill, which passed the House of Representatives 307-97 and the U.S. Senate on a margin of 79-17, for the first time gives the federal Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products.
The bill forbids advertising geared toward children, lowers the amount of nicotine in products and bans fruit- and spice-flavored cigarettes that attract young smokers.
In addition, the legislation:
• Requires the Food and Drug Administration to set up a new regulatory office that could cost as much as $700 million a year to operate. The federal office will be paid for by fees assessed against the industry.
• Allows the federal agency to ban new products unless they improve overall public health.
• Prevents manufacturers from marketing their products as “light,” “mild” or “low tar.”
• Gives the Food and Drug Administration 15 months to put rules into place that ban tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds.
• Requires graphic warning labels on each package of cigarettes. The warnings must occupy at least half the space on each package.
Obama quickly signed the legislation into law. He noted his own struggles with tobacco addiction and said his goal is to prevent teenagers from taking up the smoking habit like he did.
He pointed out that nearly 90 percent of smokers start before age 18.
“I know; I was one of those teenagers,” Obama said in his Rose Garden speech with many children at his side. “I know how hard it is to break the habit once you’ve started.”
The president said each day, another 1,000 children under the age of 18 become regular smokers.
Gov. Chris Gregoire, who, as attorney general, negotiated the landmark lawsuit with tobacco manufacturers, applauded passage of the national tobacco legislation.
“Curbing tobacco use among children and adults has been one of the driving forces of my career, going back to my days as state attorney general. I couldn’t be more pleased that President Obama signed legislation today that gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products. Given that tobacco use kills an estimated 400,000 Americans and costs the nation roughly $96 billion in health care bills each year, it is critically important that the FDA regulates tobacco in the same way it regulates nearly every other product we consume.
Gregoire continued: “I am very proud of the work we’ve done in Washington to decrease tobacco use. Today, Washington has the fifth- lowest smoking rate in the nation, and youth smoking has declined by half since 1999. I have been and remain committed to working to further cut our smoking rate in Washington, and am happy our president is equally resolved to curtail the use of tobacco.”
According to published reports, since 1998, the tobacco industry has spent nearly $308 million in lobbying expenses to block passage of tobacco legislation.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who suffers from brain cancer, castigated tobacco industry practices. “Decade after decade, Big Tobacco has seduced millions of teenagers into lifetimes of addiction and premature death,” Kennedy said in a written statement after Obama signed the bill into law.
“Enactment of this legislation will finally put a stop to that. It is truly a lifesaving act, and a welcome demonstration that this Congress is capable of enacting major health reform.”
Smoking is a public health issue not just for those addicted to nicotine, but nonsmokers, too. According to Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke, which the group says kills 53,000 nonsmokers each year in the United States. The organization says, “For every eight smokers, the tobacco industry kills, it takes one nonsmoker with them.”
We salute Congress and President Obama for FINALLY bringing the tobacco industry under regulatory rule.
Lives will be saved as a result.
