WASHINGTON--FDA regulation of tobacco moved closer this week with passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in the House on April 2. Co-sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Todd Platts, R-Pa., the bill would give the FDA the authority to oversee and regulate tobacco marketing and sales in the U.S.
Under the bipartisan legislation, the FDA would have specific
authority to:
· Restrict tobacco advertising, especially to children.
· Ban candy-flavored cigarettes.
· Require tobacco companies to disclose the contents of tobacco
products, changes to their products and research about the health
effects of their products.
· Require changes in tobacco products, such as the removal or
reduction of harmful ingredients.
· Prohibit health claims about so-called "reduced risk" 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 advertising or terms that imply health claims such as
"low-tar," "light" and "mild."
The President has indicated he would sign the legislation, but the bill faces opposition in the Senate from North Carolina Sens. Richard Burr (R) and Kay Hagen (D), who have introduced an alternative bill that would create a new department altogether to oversee tobacco regulation.
"We stand together with our public health allies in urging the U.S. Senate to make swift passage of this bill a top priority," said Charles D. Connor, president and CEO of the American Lung Association. "Swift passage of this urgently needed legislation will save countless lives, not to mention the $193 billion spent annually on tobacco-related health care costs and in lost productivity."
And after millions of tobacco-related deaths, according to the American Thoracic Society, its members want to see the Waxman-Platts bill passed immediately. "The Waxman-Platts bill needs to pass and it needs to pass now," said ATS President-elect J. Randall Curtis, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of medicine and public health at the department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington. "It is simply unconscionable that we go forward without this bill and thereby allow the tobacco industry to continue to addict our children and to enslave another generation to their deadly product."
While there are more than 400,000 tobacco-related deaths
annually, 12 million people—and another 12 million who are
unaware—have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according
to the COPD Foundation. And according to the Department of Health
and Human Services, smoking accounts for as many as nine out of 10
COPD-related deaths.
Oxygen therapy is currently the best treatment for COPD, increasing the amount of oxygen that flows into the lungs and into the bloodstream, improving shortness of breath and prolonging survival. Several studies show that long-term treatment (more than 15 hours a day) with oxygen at home increases quality of life and reduces the risk of death for people with severe COPD who have low blood levels of oxygen.
The bill has been placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar for
an upcoming vote.