Why Did it Take so Long?

By: Suzanne Tavares, CIS Compliance Director
suzannetavares@cis-partners.com

On June 22, 2009 President Barack Obama signed into law The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. This law will provide the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) broad authority over the way tobacco products are made and sold, and is intended to dilute the appeal tobacco manufacturers have on younger generations.

Under the new law, tobacco manufacturers must register with the FDA and provide details on the products, such as active ingredients and additives. In addition, the FDA will assess fees on manufacturers to pay for the cost of FDA tobacco regulation. So what led up to this law being passed? To shed some light on the matter, here are some highlights of over 50 years of facts on why cigarette smoking is hazardous to consumers, and expensive for the US government:

• In 1957, Surgeon General Dr. Burney stated: “many independent studies have thus confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that there is a high degree of statistical association between lung cancer and heavy and prolonged cigarette smoking,” and that “excessive smoking is one of the causative factors in the increasing incidence of lung cancer.”
• From 1964 to 2006, over 25 Surgeon General reports were issued informing the public of the link between cigarette smoking and secondary smoke to multiple cancers, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and cardiovascular disease.
• Annually in the US, one in five deaths (443,000 a year) are attributed to direct cigarette smoking and 49,000 are caused by secondary smoke.
• For every one person that dies from smoking related disease, 20 more suffer from a smoking related disease.
• In addition to the loss of lives, the annual financial burden of cigarette smoking on the US adds up to over $200 billion.

Why did it take so long? Perhaps, unlike his predecessor, President Obama supported this bill from back in his senate days. Perhaps it was the bipartisan effort that was displayed by the house and senate, which both overwhelmingly passed the bill. Perhaps the largest factor was that Altria Group, tobacco industry leader and owner of Philip Morris, consented to this federal regulation and in the end did not lobby against it.

It is a shame that a bill like this did not pass earlier, but now that it is law the lives and dollars it saves will benefit us all.

Sources:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124566796165436743.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/business/12tobacco.html
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhis/tobacco/nhis_tob_1.2.htm