Tobacco.org

EDITORIAL: Tightening of tobacco industry regulation long overdue 

A presidential commission's unanimous recommendation in 2001 that tobacco products be regulated by the FDA changed nothing. It generally was met with silence on Capitol Hill, where the tobacco industry had many allies.

But the industry's influence on this issue suffered a major setback in 2007, with the release of a Harvard School of Public Health study. The study suggested that tobacco companies were not living up to their 1998 agreement with states to help reduce smoking by young people. The principle finding was that nicotine levels in cigarettes had steadily increased between 1997 and 2005.

The legislation Congress is posed to approve will enable the government to reverse that trend. This change, alone, makes the action worthwhile. Nicotine is an addictive, dangerous drug. Products containing it claim 440,000 lives and cost the nation $94.7 billion in health-care bills every year. Government regulatory authority over this drug is long overdue.

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