FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996

The tobacco industry's 47,000 pages filing opposing the FDA's plans to regulate the sale of tobacco products to children does little more than create a smokescreen for the real offensive, which will take place before the Congress, says Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the organization the tobacco industry blames for the FDA's regulatory proposals.

Although the industry claims that the FDA has no jurisdiction over nicotine in cigarettes, the only case to address the issue > Action on Smoking and Health v. Harris > said that the agency would have jurisdiction if there were evidence that nicotine had drug-like effects which the industry was aware of.

That evidence has repeatedly surfaced during the past few years in the form of previously-secret industry documents. For example, in a recent Philip Morris memo the company admitted that cigarettes are simply "nicotine delivery systems" like nicotine "chewing gum, patches, aerosol sprays, and inhalers" > all of which are under the FDA's jurisdiction. The memo also likened nicotine to cocaine and morphine, and said people smoke primarily to ingest nicotine.

The industry opposition also "fudges the figures" in claiming that the FDA proposal will cost over a billion dollars in initial costs to implement, says law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of ASH. "A large part of that cost is simply for training sales personnel not to sell cigarettes to children > something the industry claims retailers have been doing successfully for many years." The industry proposal also ignores the hugh savings from the plan.

Studies shows that cigarette smoking costs the American economy over $100 billion each year in excess health care costs, time lost from work, fires, and many other costs. "Thus, if the FDA proposal can cut teen smoking by only ten percent, we can begin moving towards saving billions of dollars each year, rather than the current situation where smoking by teens have increased by thirty percent over the past several years."

In a current law suit, the six major tobacco companies charge that ASH's "threats," "pressure," and "a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign" were behind the FDA's proposal to protect children.

ASH - ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTH 2013 H Street, NW / Washington, DC 20006 / (202) 659-4310