| Will the Tobacco Bill Halt Electronic Cigarettes? |  |  |  |
| Thursday, 30 April 2009 11:37 |
 The aptly nicknamed Tobacco Bill (officially named the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act") would cast the huge shadow of the Philip Morris company over alternatives to tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes. Even though the bill seeks to give the F.D.A. regulatory powers over tobacco, it would allow two "tobacco industry executives" (presumably from Philip Morris) to exert considerable influence over the agency's decisions.In a pair of articles in the New York Times (titled Philip Morris’s Support Casts Shadow Over a Bill to Limit Tobacco and House Passes Tobacco Bill, but Senate Battle Looms), writer Duff Wilson outlines how the tobacco giant would exert considerable influence over any tobacco or tobacco substitute product. "The company’s central role, in fact, is a reason that some antismoking activists worry that the bill is a deal with the devil. Philip Morris’s support is also why other major tobacco companies — none of which back the legislation — see a cunning ploy by Marlboro’s maker to seal the company’s dominant position." "Competitors say that the F.D.A. is unlikely to approve many new tobacco products. That, they say, combined with the legislation’s broader restrictions on tobacco advertising and marketing, would lock in Philip Morris’s market dominance." “It would make it harder to let consumers know there are options available to them,” said Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for R. J. Reynolds, a part of Reynolds American and the second-largest tobacco seller and maker of Camel cigarettes. "In addition, even as Philip Morris has spent years lobbying for the legislation, it has also poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a research center in Richmond, Va., to develop new tobacco products it hopes can pass federal muster — in particular, smokeless products that can be chewed or sucked or inhaled and do not involve burning tobacco. Few other tobacco companies have the resources to place such bets on the regulatory future" Because electronic cigarettes are manufactured in China for sale around the world, through the provisions in the tobacco bill the F.D.A. would be able to regulate and/or limit the sale of any healthier alternative to cigarette smoking, including electronic cigarettes. This would effectively end the ability of the American smoking consumer to choose a better product. However, you can make your voice heard. Sign the online petition to keep life-saving electronic cigarettes available. |