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With the Democratic takeover of Congress after the mid-term elections, Senator Ted Kennedy became chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). In one of the most important acts in his new role, he is making a big mistake.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (S. 625) is a “bill to protect the public health by providing the Food and Drug Administration with certain authority to regulate tobacco products.” Sen. Kennedy introduced it to the Senate on February 15 with Sen. John Cornyn. Representatives Henry Waxman and Tom Davis introduced it to the House.

There are many problems with the legislation. Michael Siegel, a professor, physician, and tobacco researcher at the Boston University School of Public Health has been detailing the issues regularly on his website, Tobacco News and Analysis.

A catch-22 mandate for the FDA

S. 625 is meant to force tobacco companies to create safer cigarettes. The problem is that the medical community does not know which of the constituents in tobacco smoke, and at what quantities, are responsible for what diseases. So, in order for the FDA to approved a safer cigarette, 10-20 year epidemiologic studies would be required, using smokers as guinea pigs.

That sets impossibly high standards for companies developing new “lower-risk” products, institutionalizing the current “high-risk” tobacco products such as Phillip Morris’ Marlboros. Thus, by forcing the FDA to regulate tobacco, the U.S. government stops the development of potentionally safer cigarettes, helping secure monopolies for Big Tobacco.

Lower nicotine levels could mean more dangerous cigarettes

Another major blunder of S. 625 is that it requires the FDA to lower the nicotine levels in cigarettes, but does not allow it to eliminate nicotine from cigarettes. The latter would be a win for public safety, but the legislation’s chosen direction is a loss.

Smokers compensate in response to changes in nicotine yields to maintain exposure to a relatively constant nicotine dose. This is why “light” cigarettes are not safer products. While the nicotine levels are lower, smokers compensate by simply smoking more, leading to increased tar delivery and higher rates of lung and other cancers as well as chronic lung disease.

Unless the legislation calls for the elimination of nicotine from cigarettes, there is no point in forcing the FDA to require lower levels of it. In fact, it is harmful to public health.

Shielding Big Tobacco from future legislation

Tobacco companies have been taken to court regularly for decades, but one of the strongest arguments in court has been that they used to market “lighter” (lower nicotine level) cigarettes as safer for their consumers. Because this has been proven to be blatantly false by the medical community, the tobacco companies have been exposed with gross negligence for harming their customers’ health.

If the FDA is explicitly lowering nicotine yields and the public is told that the FDA now regulates cigarettes, it is likely that public perception will be that cigarettes have the government’s seal of approval; many will believe that cigarettes are safer than they used to be when the opposite is true.

It is one thing for tobacco companies to mislead the public – at least they can be taken to court. However, S. 625 shifts misrepresentation of the safety of cigarettes to the federal government. Therefore, it is our responsibility to contact our Congressional representatives and express our opposition to this bad law.

We might as well begin with the bill’s sponsors:

• Senator Ted Kennedy, MA ~ Contact
• Senator John Cornyn, TX ~ Contact
• Congressman Henry Waxman, CA-30 ~ Contact
• Congressman Tom Davis, VA-11 ~ Contact

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