U.S. House Passes Legislation to Regulate Tobacco Products

Platts leads efforts to prohibit marketing of tobacco to children while ensuring tobacco company claims regarding the safety of its products are backed by science

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives took a crucial step today towards reducing the more than 400,000 deaths and $193 billion in economic costs annually due to tobacco-caused diseases with the passage of H.R. 1256, “The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.”  H.R. 1256 grants the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products.  Congressman Todd Platts (PA-19) was the lead Republican sponsor of the bill, working in a bipartisan manner with the bill’s lead Democratic sponsor, Congressman Henry Waxman (CA-30).  H.R. 1256 passed the House Thursday by a margin of 298-112.

“Tobacco is one of the deadliest consumer products on the market today – yet it is one of the least regulated of all consumer products,” said Congressman Platts. “While the FDA has the authority to regulate products such as lipstick, hair spray and shaving cream – not to mention anti-smoking products such as nicotine gums and patches -  the FDA does not have the authority it needs to regulate one of the deadliest, if not the deadliest, products available for sale to our citizens. It is long past time when tobacco products should be subject to serious regulation to better protect the public's health.”

H.R. 1256 gives the FDA the authority to prohibit the marketing of tobacco products to children. Every day, 3,600 children try their first cigarette and 1,100 become daily smokers. With health care costs spiraling out of control every year, the cost of treating these smokers later in life has become prohibitively expensive. Prohibiting advertising to children will go a long way in preventing young people in America from starting to smoke and will save billions of dollars in health care costs and countless lives in the future.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control act does not ban tobacco products – it preserves an adult's choice to smoke.  H.R. 1256 would, however, allow the FDA to scientifically evaluate the health benefits and risks posed by ingredients in cigarettes. This legislation would make sure those tobacco products that are marketed as a safe alternative to cigarettes are, in fact, scientifically safer.

The history of low-tar cigarettes illustrates the grave danger to public health caused by fooling consumers into believing unsubstantiated claims that one kind of cigarette is safer than another.  Millions of Americans switched to low-tar cigarettes, believing that they were reducing their risk of lung cancer.  Many were convinced to switch instead of quit.  It was not until decades later that we learned, through the deaths of those smoking low-tar cigarettes, that low-tar cigarettes were just as dangerous as full-tar cigarettes.

H.R. 1256 has received wide support from more than 950 public health and faith organizations including the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids as well as many other national, state, and local organizations.  H.R. 1256 will now proceed to the U.S. Senate for its consideration.