Senate Votes to Give FDA Authority to Regulate Tobacco

The U.S. Senate today strongly supported a measure that would, for the first time, give the Food and Drug Administration the power to curb cigarette advertising, require stronger label warnings on packs of cigarettes, and otherwise regulate the tobacco industry.

The bill was passed by a vote of 79-17 mostly along party lines, with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed. A similar measure, dubbed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, recently was passed by the House of Representatives. U.S. lawmakers had already sent their proposed new law to President Barack Obama for his signature by the day after the Senate vote.

Obama, despite being an occasional smoker who has admitted struggling to quit, supports putting the FDA in charge of regulating cigarettes and other tobacco products. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the FDA did not have authority to regulate tobacco products.

Anti-smoking groups and other supporters say the regulation is necessary to better control and watch over tobacco industry marketing campaigns and other tactics which target children and teenagers. Opponents decry the move as just another encroachment of big government into business.

The plan adopted by the Senate calls for cigarette industry user fees to pay for the creation of a new tobacco division of the FDA to handle inspections of cigarette manufacturers and establish cigarette standards. The bill also restricts vending machine sales of cigarettes and limits advertising targeting younger smokers.

However, the measure does not give the FDA the power to ban cigarettes, but the agency could regulate the contents of cigarettes, force companies to make public the ingredients in cigarettes, ban flavoring added to cigarettes, among other regulation.

No related posts.