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In the NewsIn May, Ohio Faith United Against Tobacco held press conferences in Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland where they called upon the Ohio Congressional Delegation to support legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco products. An article written by James Nash appeared in The Columbus Dispatch. Parts of this article are excerpted below: FDA should regulate use of tobacco, leaders say Campaign focuses on persuading Boehner May 16, 2006 Rabbi Harold Berman, of Congregation Tifereth Israel, is joined by several other area religious leaders in speaking out in favor of Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco products. Saying the federal government has a moral responsibility to keep cigarettes out of the hands of children, a coalition of central Ohio religious leaders launched a campaign yesterday to pressure lawmakers to put the Food and Drug Administration in charge of tobacco regulations. The campaign moved from Texas to Ohio in February after Rep. John Boehner, R-West Chester, replaced Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, as House majority leader. DeLay had stymied efforts to bring tobacco products under FDA regulation. Tobacco products have been largely free of federal regulation since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2000 that stripped the FDA of oversight, and DeLay blocked legislation that would have restored that role. FDA regulation would limit cigarette manufacturers’ ability to advertise, could restrict the additives that make cigarettes more addictive and could ban cigarette-like candies that are marketed to children. The group held a news conference yesterday at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Columbus to announce a petition drive and letter-writing campaign to persuade Boehner and other lawmakers to support legislation making tobacco products an FDA responsibility. "As people of faith and as community leaders, we are here today to say, ‘Enough is enough,’ " said Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin, president of the Ohio chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. "This means standing up against an unregulated tobacco industry that markets candy flavored products that look like cigarettes to children." U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, ROhio, has sponsored a bill to put tobacco under FDA oversight. A similar bill is pending in the House, but neither has been scheduled for a vote. Boehner’s office did not return calls for comment yesterday. The congressman, a smoker, caused a stir in 1995 by handing out checks from a tobacco political-action committee on the House floor. About a dozen central Ohio leaders representing Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Sikh and other religions appeared at yesterday’s news conference. They said smoking is one of a small number of issues that unites all major faiths and political philosophies. But they said their aim is not to make smoking illegal, only to enforce reasonable rules on the manufacture and marketing of cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products. Excerpts from an editorial in The Columbus Dispatch appear below. Lift the smoke screen; Advocates are right to press Boehner to support FDA regulation of Big Tobacco May 21, 2006 Many Americans might be unaware that Big Tobacco is free of the federal oversight that governs millions of goods, including smoking-cessation products. Bills have been introduced repeatedly in both houses of Congress to place the tobacco industry under Food and Drug Administration control, but those proposals have languished. As a result, tobacco products have been mostly free of government oversight since a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the FDA lacked the authority to regulate tobacco. The ruling invalidated a series of the agency's directives that were aimed at reducing the harmful effects of smoking. This decision should have generated a quick legislative remedy, but, instead, congressional leaders have stalled efforts by some members, including Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, to put the tobacco industry under the FDA's authority. An ecumenical organization, Faith United Against Tobacco, and other anti-smoking advocates are right to keep pushing until Congress gets the message. That group has launched letter-writing and petition campaigns aimed at Rep. John Boehner. The West Chester Republican is in the hot seat because he replaced Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas as House majority leader. DeLay, a powerful enforcer of GOP policy, blocked any moves toward approval of FDA regulation of tobacco. Tobacco companies' deceptions provide ample justification for FDA regulation. As part of a major lawsuit settlement with states in 1998, the industry agreed to stop marketing products to youths. But a study by The New England Journal of Medicine in August 2001 found that tobacco companies spent more on ads in youth-oriented magazines in the two years after the agreement than they did during the year the agreement was reached. FDA regulators, if given the chance by Congress, likely would tackle such issues as whether so-called safer cigarettes really are less hazardous to health, and regulators certainly would restrict additives that make cigarettes more addictive. Boehner and his colleagues need to get tough with an industry that has skated too long without adequate oversight. An Op/Ed piece that appeared in the North Carolina newspaper The Raleigh News and Observer is below in its entirety. Editorial/Opinion There's an old Huron Indian myth that says in ancient times, when the land was barren and the people were starving, the Great Spirit sent forth a woman to save humanity. As she traveled over the world, everywhere her right hand touched the soil, there grew potatoes. And everywhere her left hand touched the soil, there grew corn. And when the world was rich and fertile, she sat down and rested. When she arose, there grew tobacco. In the early 17th century, however, King James I had a different take on tobacco use. "Smoking," said the King, "is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembles the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." Objective consideration of today's health statistics would incline one to believe tobacco use is more hell spawn than a gift from heaven. With more than 400,000 tobacco-related deaths every year, no habit has had a greater impact on the nation's health. The list of disorders induced or worsened by tobacco products seems almost endless: cancers of the lungs, mouth, vocal chords, and other organs; chronic lung disease; asthma; ulcers; clogging of the arteries, heart attacks, strokes, amputations, etc. Last July, the U.S. Senate voted 78-15 to approve legislation that would include FDA (Food and Drug Administration) authority over tobacco products. The legislation, which was approved as an amendment to a tax bill known as the Foreign Sales Corporation, or FSC bill, also includes a tobacco grower buyout that would be paid for by the tobacco companies. In contrast, the House approved a version of the FSC bill that rejects FDA authority over tobacco products and provides for a tobacco growers buyout paid for by taxpayers. The legislation is currently in a conference committee for negotiation on a final bill. FDA oversight of the tobacco companies is essential to reducing the toll of tobacco. The tobacco companies like to portray themselves as any other American business, but evidence uncovered in the tobacco litigation of the 1990s clearly demonstrates tobacco companies have deliberately deceived the public into believing their products were safe and non-addictive. They manipulated the nicotine content of their products to better addict consumers, and targeted children with their advertising. What is more, since the 1998 state tobacco settlement, they haven't stopped their shenanigans. They've introduced tobacco products with bogus claims of "reduced risk," and continued aggressive marketing at reaching kids in the magazines they read and at the convenience stores where they hang out. They've even introduced cigarettes that have candy and fruit flavors, with packaging that blatantly appeals to kids. This is immoral and needs to stop!!! Granting the FDA effective, meaningful authority over the tobacco companies would prevent tobacco marketing to children and subject tobacco products to the same consumer protections applied to other goods. It's ironic that the FDA is required to ensure the safety of foodstuff as seemingly benign as Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, but cigarettes, which contain ammonia, formaldehyde and arsenic, remain unregulated. It should also be noted the Senate version of the FSC bill is a compassionate response to tobacco farmers, their families and communities. It would eliminate the current tobacco program and all government price supports, but it would also limit where tobacco can be grown to traditional tobacco-growing areas, place some constraints on the total amount of tobacco farmed in the United States, and provide for tobacco to be grown in new locations only when currently active tobacco farmers are unwilling or unable to supply existing demand. Most importantly, the Senate bill would provide economic development assistance to certain impacted tobacco-growing areas and help tobacco growers diversify to other crops or otherwise reduce their reliance on tobacco farming. None of the previously mentioned provisions that aid tobacco farmers are in the House version of the FSC bill. The Senate version, however, would effectively protect and provide for the interest of tobacco growers while keeping the FDA off the family farm. Tobacco products are not likely to ever be banned, but Christians everywhere still ought to support and encourage efforts that diminish the scope of tobacco's harmful affects. Getting in behind the U.S. Senate's version of the FSC bill is certainly one important way to protect the pubic from that "stinking fume," which indeed is most like "the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." |