Tobacco Industry Sues FDA Over Cigarette Regulation

"They're Probably Smoking Something Other Than Tobacco,"

Says Lawyer for Legal Antismoking Organization

In what they hoped would be a carefully-engineered pre-emptive strike, the tobacco industry has already sued the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over their efforts to consider regulations to protect children from becoming hooked.

Although the purpose of the rule making proceeding which begins today is to help determine if the FDA does have jurisdiction over nicotine in cigarettes -- as it has over nicotine in patches and chewing gum -- the tobacco industry has run to court, hoping to short-circuit the process by finding a favorable forum in Greensboro, N.C.

Even before tobacco industry lawyers could read the more than 500 pages of filings in the Federal Register this morning, they were already knocking at the courthouse door, says law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

ASH's law suit against the FDA established the legal principle under which the FDA is proposing to regulate cigarettes.

"They're probably smoking something other than tobacco if they think a court is going to stop an agency from just considering something, rather than actually regulating it," says Banzhaf, who has taught administrative law for more than 25 years.

"Their long-forgotten law suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the agency's report about the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke, hasn't done anything, and I don't think the courts will look kindly on this latest effort to prevent the public from even being able to comment on this proposal and to circumvent the normal administrative process."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, August 10, 1995

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

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