Government
FDA tobacco measure tied to tax bill
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 12, 2004
Attempts to give the Food and Drug Administration some regulatory control over cigarettes and other tobacco products are being tied to a tobacco buyout amendment in a corporate tax bill moving through Congress.
There are currently stand-alone bills in the House and Senate that would require companies to disclose the ingredients in their cigarettes to the FDA and bar them from calling their products light or ultralight without agency approval. The FDA would also be given the authority to ban some ingredients and require reductions in nicotine levels.
But members of the Senate would like to add those provisions to the corporate tax bill, which has already been passed in the House, to offset the effects of the tobacco buyout provisions, which could lower the price of tobacco products.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/07/12/gvbf0712.htm.
