[Source: The Health and Life Sciences Law Daily, August 2, 2007]
The CBS Evening News (8/1, lead story, 2:30, Couric) reported, "A Senate committee today approved legislation that would for the first time regulate the tobacco companies. Despite all the health warnings, more than 45 million Americans still smoke. And, every year more than 400,000 die of smoking-related illnesses. Supporters of the legislation say it would cut those deaths dramatically."
The AP (8/2, Jalonick) reports, "The bill, approved 13-8 by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to restrict tobacco advertising, regulate warning labels, and remove hazardous ingredients." The agency would also "be given the authority to set standards for products that tobacco companies advertise as 'reduced risk' products."
The Boston Globe (8/2, Henderson) reports that the legislation, sponsored by Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), "was the result of years of negotiations that forged an unlikely coalition uniting dozens of health groups with the tobacco giant Philip Morris." While the "FDA currently can regulate such nicotine-replacement products as gums and patches," it "lacks regulatory oversight over cigarettes and smokeless tobacco." Sen. Kennedy noted, "With all the provisions we have in the tobacco bill, we have a real opportunity to save a generation of Americans from a lifetime of addiction and certain death." Meanwhile, Wyoming Senator Michael B. Enzi, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, "denounced the bill as 'fundamentally flawed' and said it merely locks in place Philip Morris's dominant market share." Enzi noted, "If this bill is good for Big Tobacco, how can it be good for public health? ... The fact is it can't. This bill is nothing more than a Marlboro Protection Act." Philip Morris USA, manufacturer of Marlboro, "supports the bill, a stance at odds with industry rivals and companies that manufacture smokeless tobacco." The Wall Street Journal (8/2, A4) also covers the story.
[S. 625 / H.R. 1108]
