AARC was among 24 leading public health and medical organizations, which have called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a final rule to regulate all tobacco products by April 25, 2015. In addition, AARC submitted standalone comments to ask FDA to state that all tobacco products should be under their jurisdiction and regulation.
AARC had asked its members to participate in a letter-writing campaign, as it continued to work with the group and develop our own public comments for tobacco regulation. In the AARC letter, President George Gaebler states:
The final rule should be comprehensive in scope and sufficiently strong enough to protect the public, and particularly children, from known or potential risks of the newly-deemed products. FDA should reject the regulatory option that would exempt “premium cigars” from the deeming rule. Any gaps in FDA’s regulatory authority will be an invitation to tobacco industry manipulation to ensure that addictive and dangerous products escape regulation which can threaten to addict young people and inflict inevitable disease and death.
In our comments we have specifically called for the following actions:
- The FDA should issue a final rule asserting jurisdiction over all tobacco products by April 25, 2015.
- The FDA should not exempt so-called “premium cigars” from regulation.
- The FDA should apply the same sales and marketing restrictions that currently apply to cigarettes to the newly-regulated products.
- The FDA should prohibit the use of “characterizing flavors” in cigars, e-cigarettes and other tobacco products.
- The FDA should require child-resistant packing of nicotine liquid products by April 25, 2015.
- The FDA should revise its flawed cost-benefit analysis of the proposed rule that led the agency to vastly underestimate the likely benefits.
Email newsroom@aarc.org with questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you.
