Tobacco Regulation Bill Before Congress

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.