WASHINGTON, May 24, 2007
Report: FDA Needs To Regulate Tobacco
Institute Of Medicine Urges Government To Develop Plans For Reducing Nicotine In Cigarettes
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(AP / CBS)
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The report calls on Congress and the president to give FDA the authority to enforce standards for nicotine reduction and to regulate companies' claims that their products reduce exposure or risk.
"We propose aggressive steps to end the tobacco problem — that is, to reduce tobacco use so substantially that it is no longer a significant public health problem. This report offers a blueprint for putting the nation on a course for achieving that goal over the next two decades," said Richard J. Bonnie, director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia School of Law. Bonnie was chairman of the committee that prepared the report.
"Unfortunately, cigarettes are one of the most dangerous consumer products ever marketed," Bonnie said at a briefing.
The report notes that cigarettes are unique in that they contain carcinogens and other dangerous toxins and would be banned under federal law if these statutes did not expressly exempt tobacco.
A bill currently before Congress would give FDA authority to regulate tobacco, but the head of the agency has expressed skepticism.
Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said that if the FDA reduced nicotine levels in cigarettes, people would change their smoking habits to maintain current levels of the addictive drug.
"We could find ourselves in the conundrum of having made a decision about nicotine only to have made the public health radically worse. And that is not the position FDA is in; we approve products that enhance health, not destroy it," von Eschenbach said.
Cigarette maker Philip Morris USA has been supporting the legislation that would give FDA power to regulate the industry.
"FDA regulation creates a uniform set of federal standards for the manufacture and marketing of all tobacco products," Michael E. Szymanczyk, chairman and chief executive officer of Philip Morris USA, said earlier this year.
In addition to requiring a cut in nicotine the institute — a branch of the National Academy of Sciences — called for higher taxes on tobacco, nationwide indoor smoking bans and other steps to reduce smoking.
Also on Thursday, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for the elimination of smoking from movies accessible to children and young people.
Cigarette smoking is largely a 20th-century development, the report noted. Prior to that Americans consumed tobacco primarily as chewing tobacco or cigars.
In 1900 adults smoked approximately 54 cigarettes per year, the report said. By 1963 per capita consumption had risen to 4,345 cigarettes per year.
The report said that while smoking in the United States has declined by more than 50 percent since 1964, tobacco use still claims about 440,000 lives every year and secondhand smoke causes another 50,000 deaths annually. Smoking-related health costs are estimated at $89 billion a year.
The National Academy of Sciences is an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters. The report was sponsored by the American Legacy Foundation, the anti-smoking organization established in 1999 as part of the settlement between state attorneys general and the tobacco industry.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 28 CommentsPosted by MichelleM99 at 12:42 AM : May 26, 2007
I quit the day I died, they brought me back so I decided if I wanted to quit dying I should quit smoking (after doing it 54 years). So far its worked, I stopped and the flat-lines stopped. now thats what I call OK!!!!
The tobacco used has more added to to it to hook ya. They hike the prices up and any Joe/Jo know that won't stop them from smoking. They need to put money a side from the sale of cigerettes to pay the health care of smokers.
I ask ex smokera how they kicked the habit,they quit cold turkey with lots of water. WILL POWER/MIND OVER MATTER. A friend quit when they got a dollar a pack.
Creating a new class of criminals (smokers, who won't quit just because the herb of choice is made illegal) will not reduce cancer, but it will increase the population in our prisons, of people who are incarcerated for doing nothing wrong, and also increase crime by creating a new underground tobacco mafia. The number of people harmed due to involvement will dwarf the number of people now harmed by smoke. Smoking whatever one wishes should be the choice and responsibility of the individual, just don't smoke around non-smokers, period. The so-called institute has no right to dictate what we can or cannot enjoy.
Yeah, buddy. Smokers should all be taken out and shot. This country needs the room for the hypocrites and the illegal aliens. Both groups seems to multiply like roaches.
Why don't we tax non-profit agencies?
Kinda funny they are outlawing smoking cigarettes and not outlawing cigars.
Talk about bad smell and nicotine content.
I would rather deal with the smell and second hand smoke from cigarettes than cigars.
Somehow the FATCATS are keeping smoking TURDS legal in their high priced bars legal and putting down the average person,who just wants the affects of nicotine.
We all know the affects of nicotine and the dangers.
Why haven't cigars been attacted? They stink like the look and have more debilitating affects than a simple smoke.
Cigar smokers just suck and blow.
Seems that will affect more than inhaleing and blowing out.
Who is loosing????
The average person. It is the *** smokers that cause more problems.
To those few who have had the courage to quit, and I understand the addiction part, I respect that and your strength; but how much better to never start, given that the stern surgeon general warnings over at least 3 decades. Most of you have no one to blame for your slavery (note the opposite of freedom), but yourselves. To those few inane and stubborn smoke-heads, I say get a clue for once in your life--or has your slavery also destroyed your intellectual capability to the extent that you cannot even discern on something so obvious as smoking?
always wondered about that figure. i would think that you'd genrally have to live with a smoker in a house to really get a good dose of tobacco/nicotine to really get affected by it. So what the F is this ***** with banning smoking in open air spaces? Like parks for instance. Just because you smell something stinky shouldn't mean that it should be banned. Should we ban buses, subway grates, campfires?????
I got a problem, aside from my addiction to cigs, I don't like these people kicking me back into my house. Anybody with me?
Ooh, I am really scared of you. Your threats are so rational I do not know how to handle them.
Grow up, why don't you. If not, I hope your smoking kills you much sooner than it normally would. You deserve it!
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