FDA Tobacco Bill Prevents Ban, Forces Them to Endorse It 17 comments
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Let's take a look at the FDA Tobacco Bill and see what effect it may have on the industry.
The bill would affect tobacco products manufactured and sold primarily by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco (RAI), Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco (LTR), Vector Group Ltd.'s Liggett Group (VGR), British American Tobacco [BAT] and Altria (MO) in the US. The bill will enable the FDA to prevent the introduction of new cigarette brands.
`(1) NEW TOBACCO PRODUCT DEFINED- For purposes of this section the term `new tobacco product' means--
`[A] any tobacco product (including those products in test markets) that was not commercially marketed in the United States as of June 1, 2003; or
`[B] any modification (including a change in design, any component, any part, or any constituent, including a smoke constituent, or in the content, delivery or form of nicotine, or any other additive or ingredient) of a tobacco product where the modified product was commercially marketed in the United States after June 1, 2003.
`(2) PREMARKET APPROVAL REQUIRED-
`[A] NEW PRODUCTS- Approval under this section of an application for premarket approval for any new tobacco product is required.
Now, what could cause a new product to be denied?
(2) DENIAL OF APPROVAL- The Secretary shall deny approval of an application for a tobacco product if, upon the basis of the information submitted to the Secretary as part of the application and any other information before the Secretary with respect to such tobacco product, the Secretary finds that--
`[A] there is a lack of a showing that permitting such tobacco product to be marketed would be appropriate for the protection of the public health;
In other words, do not expect a new cigarette to be introduced in the US. What is here now is what will be here 20 years from now. If you are Altria, and have over 50% market share, this is very good news indeed. It also means that recently introduced low cost products may come under review and alterations to the product may become necessary that will substantially raise the cost of it. A shrinking cost basis for consumers between brands will most likely cause many to "trade up" to the premium brand.
Currently, any litigation risk in cigarettes surrounds alleged fraud. Fraud in marketing and fraud in labeling. What will the FDA bill do? It completely removes the risk of litigation for fraud and allows the tobacco companies to tell consumers that they are complying with government product safety standards. By doing this they assure a safer product produced under the guidance of the FDA. Let's look. Since most of the current litigation is of the "Light" cigarettes, lets go to that section.
SEC. 911. MODIFIED RISK TOBACCO PRODUCTS.
`[a] In General- No person may introduce or deliver for introduction into interstate commerce any modified risk tobacco product unless approval of an application filed pursuant to subsection (d) is effective with respect to such product.
`[b] Definitions- In this section:
`(1) MODIFIED RISK TOBACCO PRODUCT- The term `modified risk tobacco product' means any tobacco product that is sold or distributed for use to reduce harm or the risk of tobacco-related disease associated with commercially marketed tobacco products.
This means FDA approval of all claims on "light" and "low tar" cigarettes. This clause means that FDA approval of these cigarettes does give their stamp of approval that "light" is "safer".
What are the conditions for approval?
Approval-
`(1) MODIFIED RISK PRODUCTS- Except as provided in paragraph (2), the Secretary shall approve an application for a modified risk tobacco product filed under this section only if the Secretary determines that the applicant has demonstrated that such product, as it is actually used by consumers, will--
`[A] significantly reduce harm and the risk of tobacco-related disease to individual tobacco users; and
`[B] benefit the health of the population as a whole taking into account both users of tobacco products and persons who do not currently use tobacco products.
They do not have to be "safe", just "safer" than the current choice to legally be called "light".
The bill also requires the FDA to inspect tobacco sellers for counterfeit cigarettes and report instances to the applicable Attorney General "immediately". This has been a very large issue for domestic manufacturers as foreign "knockoffs" have entered the country and cost Altria millions of dollars in annual revenue. The bill effectively makes the FDA the "sheriff" and forces them to protect the market.
Could the FDA ban tobacco? The bill says no.
`(3) POWER RESERVED TO CONGRESS- Because of the importance of a decision of the Secretary to issue a regulation establishing a tobacco product standard--
`[A] banning all cigarettes, all smokeless tobacco products, all little cigars, all cigars other than little cigars, all pipe tobacco, or all roll your own tobacco products; or
`[B] requiring the reduction of nicotine yields of a tobacco product to zero,
Congress expressly reserves to itself such power.
Will Congress ban tobacco? Never.....How will the States ever replace the billions of dollars in tax revenue they receive from taxing them?
What the bill does is stop the FDA from banning tobacco and forces them to endorse it...
Disclosure: Long MO.
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This article has 17 comments:
This is why we have all the problems here.
Businesses get the cheap labor overseas, but want us to pay the maximum price here. By the time we get a cheap product it is expensive.
Second thought for the day: If all the smokers stopped smoking and the tobacco companies went out of business, who would support all the people who are currently in that business?
Long VGR - dividends, sweet dividends!
This started out as a way to charge smokers more for insurance and ballooned to a money making machine for our government so the rich guys don't pay taxes.
People don't seem to realize (to the best of my knowledge) that Hitler started taking rights away just like the Governments of the USA and Canada are doing now. We also have a gun ban, and people don't realize the criminals will always get and have guns. Regular gun owners don't usually go out and commit crimes and if they do then they become criminals. We are all headed to a "police state" and just like in Germany NOBODY STOOD UP AGAINST IT.
NAM VET: STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS and the rest of you should do the same.
P.S. My now deceased Cdn. husband joined the American forces and did two tours of duty in Vietnam.
2. Who will pay for all the Gov't. programs if we all quit smoking and don't pay those huge amount of taxes in both countries?
3. Our Cig's. cost $9.33 Canadian for 20, how much of this is taxes I
don't know.
4. I think I'll go buy some stock in a few of the Tobacco Co's. now.
On Apr 08 06:41 PM daveybear wrote:
> If all the smokers stopped smoking, the states would GREATLY BENEFIT.
> They would not be able to collect the taxes on tobacco products,
> but they also would not be expending the billions of dollars they
> spend on health care for the smokers. The FDA should have banned
> smoking products YEARS AND YEARS ago, because they are poisonous,
> addictive, hazardous drugs.
Just a few problems with this bill:
* If the FDA lowers nicotine levels, it will be creating the very "lite" cigarettes it opposes, doing the trick used by industry to prompt people to smoke more (and more deeply) for the sake of more sales...and "sin" taxes
* The bill alleges that nicotine is "harmful", which it is certifiably not. It is after all approved in all sorts of alternative, patented, nicotine-delivery products.
* It will do nothing about the 450 or so tobacco pesticides or their residues on tobacco except, in future years, require no more pesticides in imports than are already U.S. approved.
* It will do nothing about dioxin-producing chlorine pesticide residues.
* It will do nothing about dioxin-producing chlorine-bleached cigarette paper.
* It will not forbid charcoal filters despite carcinogenic dust.
* It will not address the carcinogenic levels of radiation in typical cigarettes from still legal use of certain phosphate tobacco fertilizers. That, like the pesticide problem, will remain a USDA matter.
* It will use high-tech ways to track cigarettes from manufacturer to final vendor...(but for now will not require reporting of end customers). This is to address smuggling etc,...a virtual admission that this regulation will cause and exacerbate Prohibition style crimes.
* The bill involves infringements on Indian Sovereignty. That will be done despite about ten thousand years of tobacco use by Native Americans for medicinal, social, cultural, religious, agricultural, and trade purposes.
* Nothing is said about testing of any non-tobacco cigarette component, or about penalties against the industry, or about compensation to victims for either being poisoned or endangered or experimented upon without Informed Consent.
* The bill bars cigarette makers, sellers etc from the regulatory committee but, by not going further, allows tobacco pesticide makers, pharmaceuticals that make pesticides and additives, pharmaceuticals that compete with public-domain tobacco, suppliers of fertilizers, suppliers of any other ingredients, and any of their insurers and investors (including those who invest in cigarette manufacturers) to sit in the committee.
* Nothing prohibits the cigarette makers from passing the very large "user fees" (to pay for the regulations) on to customers.
* Nothing is mentioned in the bill about cigarettes made partly or entirely from "tobacco substitute material"...fake tobacco. The bill is worded in such a way as to ignore or exempt from regulation cigarettes made from, say, corncobs or peanut shells (nicotine and tobacco flavor, etc., added, of course) as per some U.S. Patents for processes to camouflage such waste cellulose materials as tobacco.
* Nothing is mentioned about selling that fake tobacco being fraud or not. The cigarette makers avoid outright fraud charges now by simply not labeling products as made with tobacco or not. It’s “caveat emptor”, with full permission of government regulators.
* Nothing in the bill acknowledges the medicinal values of tobacco for stress relief, appetite suppression, alertness, digestive relief and, as we now know, symptomatic relief of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other pathologies. And nothing prohibits manufacturers of patented drugs used for those purposes, business competitors to tobacco interests, from sitting in regulatory committees.
* Nothing in the bill acknowledges that many symptoms of so-called "tobacco related" diseases are already known effects of exposures to pesticides, dioxins, and that radiation---and that many of those diseases are unlikely or impossible to be caused by smoke from any plant.
* And above all, perhaps, the bill claims that "tobacco kills", as if cigarettes are automatically tobacco or just tobacco, as if the FDA accepts, without study, the industry claims and implications that cigarettes are just tobacco, and as if the harms are exclusively the fault of the natural plant itself, not Pesticide-Contaminated, Dioxin-Delivering, Radiation-Contaminated, Multi-Ingredient Cigarettes that inevitably cause disease and premature death.
This legislation, though wrapped in wholesome packaging, is tantamount to a crime itself. It is a violation of basic principles of science, medicine, and law.
On 2008 Apr 08 08:49 AM A.L.E.X. wrote:
> Yet another glaring example of how the liberal minded... appease
> the minority, screw the majority... mentality is slowing but assuredly
> ripping the very fabric of this country to shreds.