The FDA s tobacco regulation bill will not provide immunity from consumer lawsuits even for the tobacco companies that comply with the FDA s requirements. The law does not grant preemption to tobacco companies, explains ACSH s Jeff Stier. They can t veer from federal law, but if they are sued [at the state level, for instance], they have no guaranteed federal protection. The arrangement will be a Catch-22 for the cigarette manufacturers. They can t even say things to protect themselves from liability, since the law dictates what they re allowed to say, says Stier.
Those who take exception to that situation seem to be making a specious case. I can t see what this law would expose cigarette companies to that they aren t already, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. Of course, the soon-to-be-passed FDA-tobacco bill remains a terrible bill that will be harmful to public health.
The tobacco regulation bill has led to some odd couples already. Senator Charles Grassley is an Iowa Republican who represents agricultural interests, so he is sympathetic to the complaints that representatives of tobacco farmers are making about the bill. Grassley has also criticized the FDA as inept, claiming yesterday on NPR: They can t walk and chew gum at the same time. This is difficult to reconcile with his favorable opinion of the bill, which broadens FDA powers. You would think someone like Grassley who is against regulation and who claims to be interested in public health would dislike this bill, says Stier. ACSH staffers remain strictly opposed to the bill, which is nothing more than a tool to tighten the stranglehold that cigarette companies have on their customers by locking in already-dominant forms of tobacco and creating regulatory hurdles for (potentially safer) newcomers and alternatives.
