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Senators Debate
Tobacco Regulation Bill
By KEVIN FREKING
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 27, 2007; 8:55 PM
WASHINGTON -- About a third of the
payments from tobacco companies to the states goes to health care and
tobacco control, government auditors said Tuesday.
The payments, part of a 1998 settlement
by four of the nation's largest tobacco companies, were supposed to
reimburse 46 states for past health care costs stemming from tobacco
use. But states were free to spend the money however they wanted to _
and they have.
Sen.
Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., requested the report on how the tobacco funds
were spent. The report was discussed during a hearing Tuesday on
legislation that would let the Food and Drug Administration regulate
tobacco. Health groups testifying at the hearing were overwhelmingly
supportive of the legislation.
Under the bill, the FDA couldn't ban
nicotine outright, but it would give the agency power to reduce
nicotine levels, as well as require larger and more informative health
warnings.
"Again and again, the tobacco
companies have proven to us they will manipulate the system to
encourage the uptake of smoking and keep current smokers from
quitting," said Dr. Elmer Huerta, president-elect of the American
Cancer Society.
But Enzi said he opposed the
legislation because he believes it would undermine the FDA's mission
of approving cures.
"The proposed bill would force
this premier agency to provide its FDA seal of approval on a deadly
product that has no health benefit, Enzi said.
Enzi said lowering tobacco use could be
accomplished if states spent their tobacco settlement proceeds as
advertised in the 1998 agreement between the nation's largest tobacco
companies and the states.
"While states are spending their
funds on a variety of projects, they are not spending key funds on the
care of smokers and former smokers, or preventing tobacco use in the
first place," Enzi said.
The Government Accountability Office
found that states got $52.6 billion in tobacco settlement payments
between 2000 and 2005. Health care led the way when it came to how the
money was spent _ 30 percent. Budget shortfalls accounted for about
22.9 percent of the money.
Another 6 percent of the money went to
infrastructure such as roads, while education got about 5.5 percent.
An array of other uses also got funds.
Programs designed to lower tobacco use
got only 3.5 percent of the funding. Only about two-thirds of the
participating states allocate any of their settlement money to
lowering tobacco use. Pennsylvania and Ohio spent more on tobacco
control than any other states _ about $44 million and $37 million
respectively in 2005.
Democrats on the Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions focused their attention on the
dramatic health effects of tobacco use. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention estimates that 440,000 people die each year
from smoking-related illness, and $76 billion in health expenses can
be attributed to smoking.
"If Congress fails to act and
smoking continues at its current rate, more than 6 million of today's
children will ultimately die from tobacco-induced disease," said
committee Chairman Edward
M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Health groups said it's time to rein in
the addiction and harm caused by tobacco products. They want to
prohibit marketing terms such as "light," "mild"
and "low-tar," which officials say can mislead consumers
into believing that certain cigarettes are safer than others.
Dr. Jack Henningfield of The Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine said "light" and
"low-tar" cigarettes are no less harmful than other
cigarettes, yet many people buy them thinking they are safer.
"Since the light and low-tar scam
began with a vengeance in the late 1960s, America has lost tens of
millions of its citizens prematurely as they smoked light cigarettes
to their graves," Henningfield said.
The Senate passed legislation in 2004
to give the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products, but the
legislation died in the House. Now, with Democrats in charge of both
chambers, the bill's prospects have improved considerably.
For decades, the FDA said it lacked
authority to regulate tobacco so long as cigarette makers did not
claim that smoking provided health benefits. In 1996, it reversed
course and cited new evidence that the industry intended its products
to feed the nicotine habits of the roughly 45 million Americans who
smoke.
Tobacco companies sued, and the case
eventually landed in the Supreme Court. In 2000, the court ruled 5-4
that Congress did not authorize the FDA to regulate tobacco.
Neither the FDA nor tobacco companies
were invited to testify at Tuesday's hearing.
This original article can be found online at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2007/02/27/AR2007022700173_pf.html
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