FDA Deserves Oversight of Big Tobacco

The News & Advance
Published: April 8, 2008

If the federal Food and Drug Administration can regulate everything from toothpaste to the latest drugs designed to combat cancer, why shouldn’t it be allowed to monitor tobacco products?
It’s a question that has bounced around the halls of Congress for more than a decade. A vote last week by a House committee would give the FDA broad new authority over tobacco products — authority it has never had before.
And it’s about time. Those who have any qualms about giving the FDA new controls over tobacco have only to consider the grim public health public health toll of smoking, which is responsible for 400,000 deaths and $100 billion in health care costs annually.
The bill passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a 38-12 vote would authorize the FDA to police cigarette labeling, restrict sales to minors, prohibit flavored cigarettes and recall tobacco products seen as unreasonably harmful. A Senate committee has also approved similar legislation.
Under the bill, the FDA would also have to approve all new cigarettes and other tobacco products and set standards for so-called reduced risk products.
New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone backed the bill, saying, “This will force companies to substantiate claims” about the risks of cigarettes.
Critics of the measure say the FDA already has its hands full and that the agency would be incapable of taking on the additional job of regulating the tobacco industry. Rep. Joe Barton, of Texas and the ranking Republican on the committee, said the legislation “would require the FDA to take on a task that is enormous, complex and completely outside its regulatory experience.”
A Health and Human Services spokesman said the Bush administration has “significant concerns” about the bill and is worried it would load new responsibilities on the FDA.
But, as The Associated Press reported, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., countered that monitoring tobacco would be appropriate for the FDA and that is should have the “resources necessary to handle the job and handle it well.”
Those resources, according to the bill, would come from an assessment of user fees on the tobacco companies. The assessment would initially generate some $90 million this year. The fees would increase to $755 million by 2018. The fees would be assessed based on market share.
Health groups have been big supporters of the legislation. “This bill will put a stop to decades of Big Tobacco marketing aimed at addicting each new generation of young people to their deadly products,” said Daniel Smith, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
To that end, the legislation would ban candy-flavored cigarettes, which attract young smokers. It would also prohibit terms such as “light” or “mild,” which many consumers mistakenly believe means the products are safer.
Many young people have concluded for themselves that smoking is dangerous to their health and are working to persuade their colleagues not to take up the habit. Among them are those who participated in the annual Kick Butts Day last week at E.C. Glass High School.
“Smoking is a big problem and we’re trying to solve it,” said Genelle Smith, a Brookville High School junior. Part of the message that she and other students helped spread was that every day in America, some 4,000 students under 18 try smoking cigarettes and another 1,000 become regular smokers.
Health officials and others believe that giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to oversee the manufacture and sale of tobacco has the potential to reduce those figures. Congress should give it that chance.