FDA Should Regulate Tobacco: Report

U.S. Institute of Medicine panel calls for tough new policies against smoking.

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, May 24, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

THURSDAY, May 24 (HealthDay News) -- A major report from an expert federal panel is recommending that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco.

"Congress should confer broad authority on FDA to regulate the manufacture, distribution, marketing and use of tobacco products," advises the report, released Thursday by the Institute of Medicine.

The report, Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation, also recommends boosting the federal tax on cigarettes; gradually reducing the level of nicotine in cigarettes; putting pictures of the ill health effects of smoking on tobacco product packaging; and slapping an R rating on films that depict smoking.

"The debate about tobacco is over," said Richard J. Bonnie, the chair of the IOM committee that drafted the report.

"We know about the harmful effects of tobacco," said Bonnie, a law professor who also directs the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "This is the only lawful consumer product where the declared objective of the nation is to suppress its use altogether," he said. "We really have to have a properly designed regulatory strategy to do that."

One longtime antismoking crusader agreed.

"If the recommendations in this report were put into place, you could effectively wipe out tobacco use as a major public health problem in five to 10 years," said Stanton A. Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco. He was not involved in the report.

Another expert believes the new recommendations could be a catalyst for FDA regulation over tobacco.

"This report is a wakeup call," said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "Unless we step-up our efforts to reduce tobacco use, millions of people will die unnecessarily."

Myers noted that the report calls for states to raise tobacco taxes and increase funding for tobacco prevention programs. "But we will not make the needed progress unless the federal government steps up to the plate, and the Congress gives the FDA full and effective authority over tobacco," he said.