FDA Legislation
Three years ago, legislation to grant the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco died in the U.S. Congress. Today, a Congress controlled by the Democrats, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) has re-introduced virtually the same bill in Congress to empower the FDA to regulate all tobacco products either now or in the future.
The FDA legislation, known as Senate Bill S. 625 and House Bill HR. 1108 would do the following:
• Reinstate portions of the 1996 FDA rule on cigarette and smokeless tobacco products including (1) requiring retailers to verify through a photo I.D. the age of all purchasers up to 26 years old; (2) allowing self-service displays of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products only in those retail stores that do not allow a person under the age of 18 to enter; (3) limiting outdoor and in-store cigarette and smokeless tobacco advertising to black text on a white background; (4) banning all outdoor tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds; and (5) banning free samples of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products.
• Adopt future rules regulating other tobacco products including cigars, pipe tobacco, and RYO.
• Enact further restrictions on the sale, distribution, access, and advertising of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products.
• Ban all cigarette flavorings except menthol, an herb or spice flavor.
• Require manufacturers to disclose ingredients, nicotine levels, and smoke constituents.
• Provide for reducing nicotine to a minimal level.
• Congress reserves the power to reduce nicotine levels to zero and to completely ban cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, little cigars, cigars, pipe tobacco, and roll your own tobacco products.
• Require larger warning labels covering the top 30 percent of the front and back of a package.
• Reserve the following powers to states and local governments including (1) prohibiting, restricting or regulating the sale, distribution, possession, access, exposure, advertising or use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products by anyone of any age; (2) increasing cigarette and tobacco excise taxes; (3) adopting further restrictions on advertising regarding the time, place and manner of advertising; and (4) passing fire safe/low ignition propensity legislation.
• Establish content standards to regulate what goes into making cigarettes and smokeless tobacco and to require the removal of constituents that the FDA determines to be harmful.
• Adopt regulations for “modified risk tobacco products” that have reduced harm characteristics.
• Fund the FDA regulatory administration through a fee on tobacco product manufacturers. The fee for fiscal year 2008 is $85 million, fiscal year 2009 is $175 million, fiscal year 2010 is $300 million and adjusted for inflation in future years.
Overall, the FDA legislation would significantly change the manner in which retailers can advertise, market and sell tobacco products and goes so far as to grant to states the power to completely ban the sale of all tobacco products. NATO is working closely with other tobacco manufacturers and allied groups to oppose the bill and, in particular, the retail provisions of the legislation.
While NATO will consider reasonable regulations that do not infringe on the rights of retailers to advertise and sell legal tobacco products, the FDA legislation sets no boundaries on the severity of regulations that Congress or states can adopt in the future. For this reason, NATO is working to oppose this legislation.
Tobacco Legislation
NATO has shifted into high gear in fighting cigarette and OTP tax increases and statewide smoking bans. This year, NATO has added new measures to inform store customers and the general public about the unfairness of these tax hikes and smoking bans. These new measures include posters for display inside stores, letters to the editor, radio press release statements for use in local radio news broadcasts and telephone bank operations where retailers are called and urged to contact their legislators to oppose these kinds of bills.
Posters have been used in Iowa and other states to draw the attention of customers to these excessive tax increases on cigarettes and tobacco products. NATO is working to print posters for other states with similar proposed tax hikes.
Join NATO
If you want help to protect your business, you need to belong to NATO. To join, visit the NATO web site at www.natocentral.org and complete and send in the membership application form that you will find under the “Join NATO” button or fill out and fax back the form on the next page. Membership is open to tobacco outlets, convenience stores, gasoline service stations, liquor stores, grocery stores, wholesale distributors and manufacturers. To learn more about NATO, contact us at our toll-free number which is 1-866-869-8888 and visit the association’s web site at www.natocentral.org. •