Citizen Outreach Petitions Congress to Scrap New FDA Tobacco Oversight Legislation

On Tuesday, the Citizen Outreach Project, a non-profit, non-partisan grassroots lobbying organization formed to promote limited-government public policies and legislation, announced that it has sent a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Energy & Commerce Committee urging legislators to scrap a bill "which would swamp the already struggling FDA with oversight responsibility of the massive tobacco industry."

Citing a new report from the FDA's own Science Board listing "a litany of FDA deficiencies that is breathtaking in scope", president and CEO of Citizen Outreach Chuck Muth wrote, "Tobacco is already heavily regulated. There is absolutely no logical reason, no public health crisis, which could possibly justify saddling FDA with this new oversight responsibility...H.R. 1108, which panders to a vocal minority of anti-tobacco zealots and was co-written by the [leading] cigarette manufacturer in order to protect its market dominance, is unnecessary, untimely, and unworthy of congressional action...Let's not jeopardize the health of millions by adding to the already overburdened FDA's burden."

Muth also invoked former President Ronald Reagan's admonition that the government's duty is to protect the people, not run their lives for them.

Philip Morris has backed and co-written H.R. 1108 and one other bill that would give the FDA its new regulatory oversight over tobacco. However, there are stipulations in the bills.

According to the legislation, tobacco won't be regulated as a drug or as a device, and the FDA will have no authority to impose regulations on tobacco farmers.

Stricter prohibitions on marketing or selling tobacco to minors and more detailed ingredients labels would be part of the new legislation.

In October, Philip Morris announced that it is moving its headquarters to Lausanne, Switzerland, where it can pursue new markets for tobacco without the burden of U.S. tobacco marketing regulations.

The proposed federal legislation comes at a time when special interest groups that oppose smoking have been succeeding in getting state governments to pass smoking bans in public places through heavy lobbying and a strong media campaign that plays upon what critics call the smug self-righteousness of non-smokers.

When the legislation was first drafted, the FDA announced that it is not interested in taking on the new responsibility. One of the agency's greatest concerns is that it could overstate the harm associated with all tobacco use and do more harm than good.

The agency's concerns reflect ideas such as those arrived at by Britain's Royal College of Physicians, which is now championing the idea of tobacco harm reduction instead of forced quitting. The College recently announced that snuff, chew tobacco, and other nicotine-laden products should be made easily available for smokers who desire to cut down on their health risks but aren't ready, aren't willing, or aren't in the right circumstances to kick the tobacco habit. The College has called the lack of sufficient harm reduction products and education for smokers "perverse" and "unjust".

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