CardiovascularNew FDA Regulation Of Tobacco Products Has Problems
New US legislation granting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
jurisdiction over tobacco products represents a serious compromise on the
part of
tobacco control advocates, argues a new essay in this week"s open access
journal PLoS Medicine.
Stanton Glantz and colleagues from the University of California San
Francisco say that the new policy is another example of legislative
compromise
with the tobacco industry that can lead to short-term public health gains
at the expense of long-term progress. The new policy repeals federal
pre-emption of state and local regulation of tobacco advertising, which is
a positive move, but it also allows the tobacco industry an opportunity to
rehabilitate its image and products because they are now "FDA regulated,"
say the authors. That tobacco interests are represented on the
Scientific Advisory Committee that plays a central role in the development
of FDA regulations-violating the World Health Organization Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control- will make it difficult to develop and
implement effective regulation in the United States and beyond, say the
authors.
The challenge moving forward, say the authors, will be for the compromise
law"s advocates "to accept responsibility for these problems and to see
that their negative consequences do not materialize."
Funding:
This paper was not prepared as part of any extramurally funded
project.
Competing Interests:
The authors do not consider these competing
interests, but in the interest of full transparency declare the following:
Dr. Glantz
holds two research grants related to tobacco from the National Cancer
Institute, an endowed chair as American Legacy Distinguished Professor in
Tobacco Control, and a grant from the Robert Wood Johns Foundation to
assist Ms. Eubanks, who led the US Department of Justice in its successful
RICO
case against the tobacco industry (United States v. Philip Morris USA, et
al.) in writing a book about the case. Dr. Glantz also administers an
endowment from the American Legacy Foundation, which supports the UCSF
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, which Dr. Glantz
directs,
and the
Legacy Tobacco Documents Library. He also has the William Cahan Endowment
provided by the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute. Mr. Barnes is
an attorney in Dr. Glantz" research group, who is supported in part by Dr.
Glantz" National Cancer Institute grants. Ms. Eubanks retired from the
Department of Justice on December 1, 2005 and is now a lawyer in private
practice in Washington, D. C. None of these organizations played any role
in
the preparation of this paper or the decision to submit it for
publication.
Citation:
"Compromise or Capitulation? US Food and Drug Administration Jurisdiction Over Tobacco Products."
Glantz SA, Barnes R, Eubanks SY (2009)
PLoS Med 6(7): e1000118. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000118
PLoS Medicine