June 11, 2009
For the first time, the U.S. tobacco companies may soon come under the jurisdiction of health regulators. The Senate Thursday approved a measure giving the Food and Drug Administration responsibility for regulating the companies that make tobacco products.
The House has already passed a similar measure. After reviewing the Senate version, it is expected to give final approval to the measure and send it to President Obama, up until recently, a smoker himself.
Health advocates have pushed for such a measure for years. Under the bill passed by Congress, tobacco companies would have to disclose the ingredients in cigarettes.
Though the tobacco industry has resisted such a move every time its been brought up, the bill destined to become law is far from controversial. It easily passed the Senate in a bipartisan 79-17 vote.
While the legislation gives the FDA the authority to eliminate or reduce some of the ingredients contained in cigarettes, and restrict its advertising and promotion, no one expects the move to put cigarette companies out of business. In fact, were that to happen, it would create a big gap in federal and state revenues, since governments heavily tax tobacco products.
Though conservatives seem to have dropped their opposition to new regulations of tobacco, some liberals are having second thoughts. "Mark27," posting on the liberal blog Daily Kos, says going after tobacco is misguided.
"There's a lengthy list of reasons why this legislation is misguided, but none more so than the fact that the FDA, already lax in its oversight of food safety issues to the detriment of public safety, now stands poised to redirect its limited resources to become yet another government institution whose primary objective is censuring cigarette smokers," he warned.
