Congress Starts Hearings on FDA's Control of Tobacco

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Identical bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate would grant the FDA the same authority over tobacco that it has over drugs, medical devices and many foods. The bill would allow the agency, which has come under fire in recent years for its monitoring of the drug industry, to regulate the levels of tar, nicotine and other harmful ingredients in cigarettes and smoke. That smoke contains some 4,000 chemicals, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer.

The bills would also strengthen bans against tobacco advertising and bar tobacco manufacturers from making false claims or use terms such as "light" and "low tar" to describe products. They would also ban cigarette sales to minors and strengthen package warning labels.

The Senate version of the bill would also require that cigarette packs carry graphic warnings illustrating the health risks of smoking.

However, the bills would not require FDA approval of tobacco products already on the market -- only new products would need FDA approval before they could be sold to consumers. In addition, the FDA would have no authority to increase the legal age for buying cigarettes or restrict where cigarettes might be sold.

Still, the hearings themselves are good news, said M. Cass Wheeler, CEO of the American Heart Association.

"We cannot continue to allow the tobacco industry to oversee its own products. That makes as much sense as the three little pigs giving the big bad wolf the keys to their homes," Wheeler said in a statement released Wednesday. "With more than 400 Americans dying each day from cardiovascular diseases caused by smoking, we cannot waste another minute in giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the tobacco industry."

More information

For more on the dangers posed by smoking, visit the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.