Court and Congress to Press FDA to Regulate Nicotine,

Agency Given 60-Day Formal Legal Notice of Law Suit

At a press conference to announce the filing of a bill to require the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate the nicotine in cigarettes, it was announced that the agency was also being put under legal pressure by the judicial system to act.Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the organization whose legal actions triggered the ban on cigarette commercials, smoke-free domestic flights, and a pending proposal by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to ban all smoking, also announced that it has given the FDA a 60-day notice to regulate nicotine or face possible legal action.

Law professor John Banzhaf, ASH's Executive Director, explained that the FDA's tentative decision was based upon a legal principle ASH had established in an earlier court suit.

Based upon that principle, and the growing evidence that cigarette manufacturers deliberately manipulate the levels of nicotine in cigarettes in order to satisfy the drug addictions of consumers, ASH petitioned the FDA to assert jurisdiction over nicotine in cigarettes, as it now asserts jurisdiction over nicotine in chewing gum, patches, and other devices.

The FDA's failure to act on that petition for more than one year now gives ASH the legal basis to sue the agency to act without further "unreasonable delay." It was similar pressure on OSHA to respond to a court filing which prompted the agency to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking which would virtually ban smoking in all workplaces.

Banzhaf says that he hopes the combination of pressure from the courts and from Congress will finally move the agency to correct a mistake it made more than 50 years ago when there was little evidence about the drug- and addictive nature of nicotine.

Although the bill introduced today -- The Freedom From Nicotine Act -- would explicitly give the FDA jurisdiction over nicotine -- a prior decision in a case brought by ASH held that the agency could assert jurisdiction without any new legislation; a position the current FDA Commissioner has also taken.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Thursday, June 15, 1995

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL: John Banzhaf (202) 659-4310

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