The Food and Drug Administration issued new rules for the tobacco industry on Thursday, aimed at ending tobacco company marketing to minors. The rules would end event sponsorship, limit cigarette vending machines and free samples, and, most controversially, ban color graphics from advertisements that can be seen by children.
Thursday’s announcement is the latest in a long-running fight to bring tobacco companies under FDA regulation. President Bill Clinton tried in 1996 to give the FDA authority over tobacco companies; the move was overruled by the courts. But a law enacted last year puts Big Tobacco under the FDA, and major companies, with the exception of Philip Morris, have been fighting it in court.
In January, a federal district court ruled that limiting advertisements to black-and-white graphics only, a rule included in the FDA’s newest regulation, was a First Amendment violation. The Obama administration appealed, and the case is expected to reach the Supreme Court.
In 2006, cigarette companies spent about $35 million a day on promotions, and the number of U.S. smokers, after years of decline, has leveled out at about 20 percent of the total population.
More on the FDA’s rules from Reuters.
