WASHINGTON, D.C. -- July 8, 2008 -- Big Tobacco won’t be able to argue that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sanctions the industry’s deception of consumers if the agency rescinds its 40-year-old policy on labeling of supposed reduced-risk products.
“The days of virtually unfettered access to consumers by Big Tobacco are numbered,” said John R. Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “The FTC’s action will help to rein in an industry that peddles a product that kills more than 440,000 people in America each year, and now Congress must follow suit by giving the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco products.”
In March 1966, the FTC gave guidance to tobacco companies that allowed them to market their products with claims about tar and nicotine levels as calculated by the Cambridge Testing Method, a machine-based method approved by the FTC. In recent years, evidence has shown that the numbers based on the Cambridge Method neither provide consumers with meaningful evidence about the levels of tar and nicotine they receive, nor accurately indicate the relative health risks of the products.
In fact, the tobacco companies knew their labeling would mislead consumers with tragic results. The proposed change would make clear that the FTC does not endorse Big Tobacco’s methods. A bill pending in Congress could further regulate the tobacco industry, after decades of free reign.
The Family Smoking Prevention Tobacco Control Act (S. 625/H.R. 1108) has broad bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate. If passed, the legislation would grant the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco, virtually the only consumable product left unregulated in the United States. In addition to giving FDA authority to conduct comprehensive product testing including tar and nicotine levels, the legislation would force companies to disclose a full list of ingredients, stop making false health claims such as “light” and “low tar” and rein in egregious marketing practices aimed at luring 4,000 new children into lighting their first cigarette each day.
“This change, coupled with FDA regulation of tobacco, would make clear that the government does not sanction an industry that profits from addicting generation after generation to a deadly product,” said Daniel E. Smith, president of ACS CAN, the advocacy partner of the American Cancer Society. “Congress has the chance to allow the federal government to regulate an industry that has been left to its own devices for far too long, misleading adults and children alike in order to get them addicted to tobacco.”
One-third of cancer deaths in the United States are due to tobacco-related illnesses. The FTC proposal is subject to a 30-day public hearing period, before the Commission makes a final ruling. The House could take up the FDA legislation as soon as next week.
ACS CAN is the nonprofit, nonpartisan partner advocacy organization of the American Cancer Society, dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage lawmakers, candidates and government officials to support laws and policies that will make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer. For more information, visit https://www.fightcancer.org/.
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