by Hans Bader
June 23, 2009 @ 12:07 pm
Yesterday, Obama signed into law a deceptive FDA “tobacco regulation” bill that will undermine public health in the long run by protecting cigarette manufacturers against competition from less deadly tobacco products (which is why the nation’s largest cigarette maker supported the bill). As Bill Godshall of Smoke Free Pennsylvania notes, the bill “protects the most hazardous tobacco product (cigarettes) from market competition by the least hazardous (smokefree) tobacco products, as it:
* bans all new and recently introduced smokefree products, while keeping…
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by Hans Bader
June 11, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
The Senate has just passed the FDA tobacco regulation bill by a 79-to-17 vote. The bill now goes to President Obama, who has said he will sign it. The bill has odd and counterproductive provisions. Curiously, the bill would deny companies’ protection against “tort liability — even if they rigorously follow every FDA rule.”
As I noted earlier, FDA regulation may actually undermine public health by making it harder to market to smokers other tobacco products, like snus, that are not as lethal…
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by Hans Bader
June 10, 2009 @ 6:46 pm
Congress is about to enact a bill to subject tobacco to FDA regulation. Mark Berlind notes one anomalous feature of the bill: it would deny companies’ protection against “tort liability — even if they rigorously follow every FDA rule.” We wrote earlier about how FDA regulation might actually undermine public health by making it harder to market to smokers other tobacco products, like snus, that are not as lethal as cigarettes.
As Jacob Sullum notes, the law will require snus “to carry a…
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