By Kevin Drawbaugh
Reuters
Feb 27, 2007 — WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Two Republican senators on Tuesday criticized as
misleading a proposal to let the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
regulate cigarettes, while Democratic proponents of the measure said
it would save lives.
"Just having the FDA review and
approve cigarettes sends mixed and confusing signals to the public —
creating the sense that cigarettes are safe or made safer," said
Wyoming Republican Mike Enzi in a Senate Health Committee hearing.
The bill would empower the FDA to
regulate tobacco, restrict tobacco advertising, prevent sale of
cigarettes to minors, require stronger warning labels, bar
misrepresentation of tobacco's dangers and order removal of harmful
ingredients from cigarettes.
Enzi said he rejects the measure,
introduced by committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts
Democrat.
"I am no friend of Big Tobacco,
and I've never taken a dime from them," said Enzi, who
nonetheless argued that because the bill would not let the FDA ban
cigarettes, it would be misleading.
Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina
Republican, also raised questions about the basic premises of the
bill.
Kennedy said the bill is widely
supported by public health advocates and called for its passage to
protect children from cigarette advertising and reduce 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," he
said.
Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said
he backs the bill.
"MOST DANGEROUS PRODUCT"
The bill also would set standards for
"reduced-risk" tobacco products, which could not be marketed
as safer than regular cigarettes without FDA verification.
The legislation has been introduced by
Kennedy and Texas Republican John Cornyn in the Senate, along with
California Democrat Henry Waxman and Virginia Republican Tom Davis in
the U.S. House of Representatives.
It has 29 co-sponsors in the Senate and
96 in the House. Republican House leaders who blocked its
consideration two years ago are out of power.
Matthew Myers, president of the
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, testified at the hearing that the bill
would save lives.
"Today, America's most dangerous
consumer product — tobacco — is also the one consumer product that
no federal agency oversees for health and safety purposes. This
carefully crafted, thoughtfully balanced legislation would correct
that glaring problem," Myers said.
The bill is also supported by Altria
Group unit Philip Morris USA, maker of top-selling Marlboro
cigarettes.
Industry analysts have said that Philip
Morris supports it in part because the bill could help protect the
company's dominant market share by muting rivals' advertising
messages.
Reynolds American Inc., maker of Camel
and Kool cigarettes and arch-rival of Philip Morris, has said that the
Kennedy bill would restrict its ability to compete.
The FDA tried on its own over a decade
ago to regulate tobacco, but the industry resisted fiercely. The
Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the FDA could not regulate without
congressional action.
The Senate voted in 2004 to give the
FDA that power, but the effort died in the House. Philip Morris backed
FDA regulation then.
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