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Congress Urged to Grant FDA Authority Over Tobacco Products
An insidious new generation of tobacco products is threatening efforts to reduce tobacco use in the United States, warns a new report issued today by a coalition of public health organizations.
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The report describes how tobacco manufacturers take advantage of the lack of government regulation to design and market products that recruit new youth users, create and sustain addiction to nicotine, and discourage current users from quitting. Responding to declining smoking rates and growing restrictions on smoking, tobacco manufacturers are finding novel ways to entice new users, especially children, and discourage quitting.
To stop the tobacco industry's harmful practices and protect public health, leading public health organizations urge Congress to pass pending legislation introduced by Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco products and their marketing. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi supports the FDA legislation. In the House, the Health subcommittee on Energy and Commerce is tentatively scheduled to mark-up the bill on March 6. The report was issued by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
In California, tobacco use causes $9.1 billion in health care bills each year and kills 37,800 residents; 15.4 percent of California high school students currently smoke.
The report details key trends including:
-- Flavored products: Cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and cigars have been introduced in an array of candy, fruit and alcohol flavors. R.J. Reynolds' Camel cigarettes, for example, have come in more than a dozen flavors, including lime, coconut and pineapple, toffee, and mint. Flavorings mask the harshness of the products and make them more appealing to new users, especially children.
-- Novel smokeless products: New and more novel smokeless tobacco products have been marketed as ways to help smokers sustain their addiction in the growing number of places where they cannot smoke. In addition to traditional chewing and spit tobacco, smokeless tobacco now comes in teabag-like pouches and even in dissolvable, candy-like tablets.
-- Targeted products and marketing: New products and marketing have been aimed at women, girls and other populations. The most recent example is R.J. Reynolds' Camel No. 9 cigarettes, a pink-hued version that one newspaper dubbed "Barbie Camel" because of marketing that appealed to girls.
-- Unproven health claims: A growing list of products have been marketed with unproven and misleading claims that they are less harmful than traditional cigarettes. Claims have included "All of the taste... Less of the toxin" (Brown & Williamson's Advance cigarettes) and "Reduced carcinogens. Premium taste" (Vector Tobacco's Omni Cigarettes).
-- Undisclosed Product Designs: The report also illustrates how tobacco manufacturers control nicotine delivery to maximize addiction while using flavorings and other additives to make their products taste milder, easier to inhale and
