Open main menu

FDA tobacco bill

Revision as of 20:05, 5 March 2009 by Anne Landman (talk | contribs) (SW: add link)

{{#badges:Tobaccowiki}} The FDA tobacco bill, also known as the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act," is legislation designed to give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products. It was first introduced in the U.S. Congress in February, 2007, and was reintroduced in 2008 and again in 2009.[1]

Background

In 1994, David A. Kessler, then Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asserted that nicotine was a drug and cigarettes were drug-delivery devices intended to affect the structure and function of the body, and as such, should be regulated by the FDA under the federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act. Following this assertion, FDA promulgated rules that were narrowly tailored to protect youth from nicotine addiction, like the use of "tombstone" advertising (black and white text only), and restrictions on point of sale advertising. In 1995, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard Tobacco Company and Liggett Tobacco Company challenged FDA's jurisdiction over nicotine in court [2] and ultimately, in 2000, the Supreme Court ruled on a split decision (5 to 4) that only Congress has the ability to direct FDA to regulate cigarettes.[3]

References

You need to log in to edit this page.

Log in
Sign up