FDA Should Regulate Tobacco: Report

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"The report could serve as a catalyst to get Congress to act and for the president to sign such a bill," Myers said. "It would be unconscionable for the president to veto legislation giving the FDA authority over tobacco," he said.

A bill dubbed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which would give the FDA authority over tobacco was introduced in February and is working its way through Congress.

Among those supporting the bill is Phillip Morris, the largest maker of cigarettes in the United States. "Philip Morris USA believes regulation of tobacco products by the FDA would establish a comprehensive national tobacco policy that could potentially create a competitive framework within which manufacturers are focused on reducing the harm tobacco use causes," the company said on its Web site.

At the same time Phillip Morris is supporting FDA regulation, its 2006 sales of cigarettes in the United States increased to $4.8 billion on shipments of 183.4 billion cigarettes, according to information on the company's Web site. Internationally, Phillip Morris had tobacco sales of $8.5 billion and shipped 831.4 billion cigarettes.

Glantz said he's wary of just how effective FDA regulation might turn out to be.

"It's obscene that the FDA doesn't have regulatory authority over tobacco," Glantz said. "But the FDA has a long history of being captured by the industries it regulates. The tobacco companies are really good at that kind of stuff. Phillip Morris would not be supporting a piece of legislation that would hurt Phillip Morris. That Phillip Morris is supporting this particular legislation is prima fascia evidence that it's not good" he said.

Other recommendations in the report include:

• Devoting $15 to $20 per person annually to fund tobacco control programs in the states.
• Licensing all retail outlets that sell tobacco products.
• Boosting funding for smoking-cessation programs.
• Having nationwide smoking bans in all restaurants, bars, malls, prisons, and health care facilities.
• Requiring all insurance plans to coverage of smoking cessation programs.
• Making efforts to curb youth smoking and access to tobacco, including bans on online sales and direct-to-consumer shipments of tobacco products.
• Removing federal restrictions, so states can enact more stringent measures to reduce smoking.
• Limiting tobacco advertising to black-and-white and text-only.
• Stop tobacco companies from using misleading claims like "mild" and "light."
• Requiring tobacco companies to stop putting false or misleading information on their products.
• Limit the type or number of places that can sell tobacco products, and make them display warnings and give space to smoking-cessation aids.
• Stop tobacco companies from targeting youth.

"If we did all of these things, we might be able to cut smoking prevalence in half by 2025," Bonnie concluded.

More information

For more information on smoking, visit the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.