WASHINGTON (AP) - At a House subcommittee hearing set for Wednesday, federal
lawmakers will debate initiating federal regulatory control over what goes into
cigarettes.
The legislation, which has already cleared a key Senate committee, would
allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the levels of tar, nicotine
and the other 4,000 cigarette ingredients, of which 40 are known to cause
cancer.
The 10 a.m. EDT hearing in the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will
take up the bill, which also would give the FDA the ability to restrict the
advertising and marketing of cigarette products.
Similar efforts have failed to pass Congress in recent years, although
analysts say a Democratic majority may be more willing to expand the FDA's
authority. The House bill is co-sponsored by nearly 200 representatives.
The effort toward more regulation has the support of Philip Morris, a unit
of Altria Group Inc. that sells the most cigarettes in the U.S.
Philip Morris rivals, such as the Vector Group Ltd. and Reynolds American
Inc., argue that the bill would give Philip Morris the opportunity to maintain
market dominance because it would can spend more on lobbying than most
competitors.
The company also would have a bigger budget to fund scientific studies of
reduced-risk cigarettes, which would undergo FDA review if the pending bill law.
Witnesses from academia, the Institute of Medicine and the National
Association of Convenience Stores are scheduled to appear at the hearing.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|