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Should the FDA Regulate Cigarettes?
Ultimately, Congress is the appropriate forum to determine whether additional tobacco regulation is appropriate - and if so, what it would include and which agency would be the appropriate regulatory authority.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company believes that the details and competitive impact of any proposed regulations considered by Congress are more important than the question of what agency is deemed appropriate by Congress to oversee the regulations.
In 2007, proposed legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives that would give the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco products. Click here to read R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's position on those bills.
For additional information, view Our Position on Further Tobacco Regulation and Our Guiding Principles and Beliefs.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s Position on Proposed Legislation
In essence, this is the very same bill written 10 years ago by a small group of people who represent a certain set of interests and perspectives. In the last decade, societal views have changed, regulation of the tobacco industry has changed, opinions within the public health community have changed. This bill should not be an end point, but rather a starting point for a rational discussion that reflects current perspectives of constituencies that would be affected – up to and including the states, who, by virtue of the MSA’s implementation since this bill was first drafted -- stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if this bill passes.
Simply changing the date on an unworkable piece of legislation does not suddenly make it work.
A. The concerns we have of the bills introduced:
Overall
Does not strike an appropriate balance between:
- Reducing the harm caused by tobacco products
- Maintaining consumer acceptability of tobacco products
- Improving informed choice by adult tobacco users
- Perpetuating real competition in the domestic tobacco product category
- Recognizing the various economic interests in the tobacco industry (shareholders, jobs, states’ MSA and tax revenues, wholesalers and retailers)
Specifics
Some of our specific concerns with the bills include:
- Overly broad authority given to the Agency with few, if any, realistic parameters on competitive, economic and adult choice interests
- The consequences of dramatic reductions in nicotine levels on the consumer acceptability and impact on the cigarette category
- The consequences of numerous and continuous product design changes on consumer acceptability and impact on the cigarette category
- The prohibitions on brand communications by mail, email, age-restricted websites or in adult only venues to age-certified/verified adult tobacco users
- The elimination of federal preemption over marketing and advertising
- The failure to recognize the need for differing standards between cigarettes, smokeless and OTP categories
- The serious constitutional/commercial free speech issues directly associated with many of the advertising/marketing prohibitions
- The lack of emphasis on establishing beneficial relative risks/continuum of risk policies to better inform adult tobacco users
We also have a concern over what appears to be developing as a rush to judgment and passage by Congress.
These are important, complicated issues that deserve and require objective, thoughtful deliberation that includes, not excludes, the range of opinions and solutions held by many, not just a few.
B. The areas for federal regulation where we agree include:
Overall
A national framework of regulations for tobacco products that creates a more stable and cooperative environment.
Specifics
Some of the specific areas include:
- Establishing standards for harm reduction, relative risks and reduced exposure verification and communication to adult tobacco users
- Enhanced ingredient disclosure
- Enhanced narrative content and placement of warning labels
- Overall reductions in “tar” levels of cigarettes
- Elimination of sampling of cigarettes
- Elimination of tobacco product advertising in magazines
- Elimination of tobacco product advertising placed outside point-of-sale locations
- Elimination of tobacco brand sponsorships
- Elimination of light, ultra-light and “flavor” descriptors
Resolving the controversies surrounding the manufacture, marketing and use of tobacco products is a critical and achievable goal. The bills introduced should serve as the basis for serious discussion among many, not as a final product with outdated input from a very, very few.
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