AARC Applauds House Vote on Tobacco Legislation

August 6, 2008

The AARC is among many groups and organizations that have been supporting legislation in Congress aimed at giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory control over tobacco.

Those efforts were rewarded on July 30, when the House of Representatives passed The Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act (S 625/HR 1108) by a margin of 326 to 102. Now the bill heads to the Senate, where it already has 57 cosponsors. While advisors to President Bush have said they will recommend a presidential veto of the bill should it pass both houses of Congress, health advocates are working to urge the President to support the legislation to protect children from taking up tobacco and address the leading cause of preventable death in the country.

Among other things, the legislation would:

• Impose specific restrictions on tobacco marketing and sales to kids.
• Grant the FDA authority to further restrict tobacco marketing to the full extent allowed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
• Require tobacco companies to disclose the contents of tobacco products, changes to their products and research about the health effects of their products.
• Grant the FDA broad authority to require changes in tobacco products, such as the reduction or removal of harmful ingredients and the reduction of nicotine to non-addictive levels. This includes the authority to reduce or eliminate menthol in cigarettes.
• Ban candy-flavored cigarettes.
• Require larger, more effective health warnings on tobacco products and advertising.
• Prohibit health claims about so-called “reduced risk” products that are not scientifically proven or that would discourage current tobacco users from quitting or encourage new users to start.
• Prohibit misleading terms such as “low-tar,” “light” and “mild.”

You can write your members of Congress in support of the legislation by going to the AARC’s Government Affairs web page.