Tobacco Regulation Bill Passes House

WASHINGTON — FDA regulation of tobacco moved closer on
Tuesday with passage of the
Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in the House.
Co-sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Todd Platts,
R-Pa., the bill would give the FDA 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 health warnings on tobacco products.
• Prohibit advertising or terms that imply health claims such as
  “low-tar,” “light” and “mild.”

President Obama 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 [the Waxman-Platts] 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 to 16
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. Several studies
show that long-term treatment with oxygen at home increases quality
of life and can prolong survival for people with severe COPD who
have low blood levels of oxygen.

The Waxman-Platts bill has been placed on the Senate Legislative
Calendar for an upcoming vote.