Tobacco.org

Senate passes the most sweeping tobacco-control bill  

Cigarettes marketed as "light," "low" tar or "mild" will be banned within a year as part of a historic bill the Senate passed 79-17 on Thursday.

The legislation, approved by the House in April, is the most sweeping tobacco-control measure ever passed by Congress. It goes now to President Obama, who has said he will sign it.

The bill, which gives the Food and Drug Adminstration the authority to regulate tobacco products, comes after more than a decade of congressional debate and a half century since the U.S. Surgeon General's 1964 landmark report linking smoking to lung cancer.

"It's long overdue," said Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.

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