The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will get the power to regulate tobacco for the first time in its 103-year history under legislation passed by Congress last week. President Barack Obama, himself a sometime smoker (see picture), has promised to sign the bill into law.
Passed by substantial majorities in both the House and the Senate, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act requires that new tobacco products win pre-market approval from the FDA.
The bill bars the FDA from banning nicotine, but it gives the agency standard-setting authority that could lower nicotine levels in tobacco products. It constrains advertising, requires large warning labels on packaging and levies user fees paid by the industry to help finance FDA regulation. The fees will total $235 million in 2010.
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FDA gains the power to regulate tobacco products. Nature 459, 901 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459901b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/459901b
