Indiana, Maine AGs oppose federal legislation that would weaken Tobacco Control Act
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller and Maine Attorney General Janet Mills are urging members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations to oppose current legislation that would weaken the Tobacco Control Act (TCA), specifically as it relates to e-cigarettes and other new tobacco products that have entered the market in recent years.
Zoeller and Mills serve as co-chairs of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) Tobacco Committee.
The proposed legislative change would remove the product review requirements under the TCA for products that have entered the market since Feb. 15, 2007. This would include thousands of electronic cigarette products that have exploded onto the market in recent years.
Under the pre-market review process, manufacturers are required to provide information about new products which allows the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make a science-based assessment of the risks of the product, and prevent the sale or place additional restrictions on it if it finds such action “appropriate for the protection of the public health.â€
The attorneys general argue in their letter to committee members that the FDA should retain its ability to prevent the sale of a dangerous product, require labeling changes, and restrict marketing in order to help reduce youth usage and protect public health.
“The federal government continues to backpedal on the issue of e-cigarettes and every day more teens are being introduced to nicotine addiction,†Zoeller said. “We have been regulating cigarettes to successfully curb smoking and youth addiction for decades, and yet cannot seem to extend this model to include the latest smoking trends. Government needs to act to protect public health rather than to continue to hide behind the lack of long-term research on e-cigarettes.”
Youth usage of e-cigarettes tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to a 2015 study by the Centers for Disease Control. Last year, there were nearly four thousand calls to poison control centers due to exposure to e-cigarettes, more than double the calls made in 2013.
“Congress should not be providing a complete exemption from such a review, which could allow the continued sale of a dangerous product and undermine the public health of the nation,†the attorneys general said in their letter.
The proposed change is contained in Section 747 of the House Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2016.
This proposal to weaken the TCA comes less than a month after Zoeller and Mills urged the FDA to quickly finalize the deeming regulations that were proposed in April 2014 to add e-cigarettes to the Act so that the products could be regulated similarly to traditional tobacco products.
In October 2013, Zoeller and 40 other state attorneys general sent a letter to the FDA asking that the agency issue proposed rules and begin regulating e-cigarettes. After the proposed deeming regulations were issued, 29 attorneys general filed comments on Aug. 8, 2014, supporting the deeming action and recommending that the regulations be strengthened in several respects. These additional recommendations include banning flavors, prohibiting Internet sales and subjecting e-cigarettes to the same advertising and marketing restrictions as combustible cigarettes.
“Although we urge the FDA to do more than initially proposed in the deeming regulations to protect our youth from the dangers of nicotine, at a minimum, the TCA should not be weakened by removing product review requirements,†the attorneys general said in their letter.
In addition to his role on the NAAG Tobacco Committee and as Indiana’s top consumer protection official, Zoeller serves on the Board of Directors of the Legacy Foundation, a national public health organization dedicated to ending tobacco use in the United States.
A copy of the letter sent on July 7, 2015 is attached.
