Jump to full article: CNN, 2009-06-19
Author: Kristi Keck CNN
Intro: * President Obama soon will sign bill putting tobacco under FDA legislation
* The bill is a win for Philip Morris, anti-tobacco advocate says
* Grandson of R.J. Reynolds founder: Bill marks "diminished clout" of tobacco lobby . . .
Patrick Reynolds, whose grandfather founded the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., said the passage of the bill "marks the diminished clout of the tobacco lobby on the Hill."
Stanton Glantz, a longtime anti-tobacco advocate and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco, said the public health community has made "gigantic progress" over the past few decades, but he sees the FDA bill as a win for Philip Morris USA, the nation's biggest cigarette company.
At last week's annual National Conference on Tobacco or Health, a large anti-tobacco gathering, in Phoenix, Arizona, Glantz said only about half of the room applauded when it was announced that the legislation passed.
"People were talking about making lemonade out of lemons," he said. "Basically, the public health people cut a deal with Philip Morris." . . .
His biggest complaint: The bill creates a 12-member advisory board through which all regulations will flow. Tobacco industry representatives will hold three nonvoting seats.
"Putting three guys on this committee would be a little bit like putting three mobsters on the Department of Justice committee on organized crime," Glantz said, echoing the sentiment of other strong tobacco-control advocates.
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