- Apr 2, 2009
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Following up on its article this week at:
Sen. Pat Toomey pushes to exclude large and premium cigars from FDA regulation
Toomey pushes to exclude large and premium cigars from FDA regulation - mcall.com
today's Allentown Morning Call published the following op/eds:
Allentown Morning Call Point/Counterpoint: Should the FDA regulate cigars?
No: Bill Godshall, Smokefree Pennsylvania
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-no-point-counterpoint-fda-cigars-20120810,0,2992929.story[/SIZE]
Q: Should the Food and Drug Administration have the power to regulate large and premium cigars?
A: Although Congress granted the Food and Drug Administration the legal authority to regulate currently unregulated tobacco products under Chapter IX of the tobacco Control Act, the agency can only do so "if the Secretary (of the Department of Health and Human Services) determines that such regulation would be appropriate for the protection of the public health." But there is no evidence that public health would benefit if those regulations are applied to cigars, pipe tobacco, e-cigarettes or any other currently unregulated tobacco product.
Q: What are the health risks of smoking large or premium cigars?
A: The disease risks of smoking large cigars are significantly lower than the risks of cigarette smoking because the vast majority of large cigar smokers don't inhale the smoke and don't smoke daily. While 75 percent of cigarette smokers inhale the smoke and smoke multiple cigarettes daily, fewer than 5 percent of premium cigar smokers do so.
Q: What type of regulations do you think the FDA would implement?
A: Obama's FDA has already stated its intent to regulate cigars, e-cigarettes and all other currently unregulated tobacco products under Chapter IX of the Tobacco Control Act, which now applies to cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll your own, and smokeless tobacco. If Obama isn't reelected this year, the FDA may never propose these unwarranted regulations.
Q: How would FDA regulations affect the cigar industry?
A: Chapter IX regulations would increase cigar prices and put many small companies out of business. The only beneficiaries of FDA cigar regulations would be Philip Morris and several other large companies that can cost effectively comply and/or that have already been complying with the regulations since 2009 for cigarette and/or smokeless tobacco products. That's probably why Philip Morris opposes the legislation to exempt premium cigars from FDA regulation, as the company also lobbied Congress to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.
Q: Does the cigar industry target kids?
A: Despite repeated allegations by anti-tobacco extremists, there is no evidence that cigar companies target market to youth. The primary reason Congress required the FDA to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, but not cigars or other unregulated tobacco products, was because cigarettes and moist snuff were target marketed to youth in past decades. Besides, all 50 states have long banned cigar sales to minors, and illegal tobacco sales to minors have dramatically declined during the past 20 years to the lowest rates on record.
Bill Godshall is the executive director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, based in Pittsburgh
Allentown Morning Call Point/Counterpoint: Should the FDA regulate cigars?
Yes: Matt Myers, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-yes-point-counterpoint-fda-cigars-20120810,0,7429749.story
[/SIZE]
Q: Should the Food and Drug Administration have the power to regulate large and premium cigars?
A: All tobacco products including cigars harm health, and all should be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent kids from using them and reduce the death and disease they cause. In fact, the FDA regulates products far less hazardous than cigars. Exempting some products from regulation creates loopholes that tobacco companies exploit to market to children and avoid public health regulations. For example, when the FDA prohibited candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes, tobacco companies introduced cigarette-like cigars with similar flavors and similar appeal to kids. Congress should reject legislation that would exempt some cigars from FDA regulation. Congress shouldn't create yet another loophole that helps tobacco companies market to kids.
Q: What are the health risks of smoking large or premium cigars?
A: According to the U.S. Surgeon General and the National Cancer Institute, cigar smoking causes cancer of the oral cavity (lip, tongue, mouth and throat), larynx (voice box), esophagus and lung, as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease.
Q: What type of regulations should the FDA implement?
A: The 2009 law that gave the FDA authority over tobacco products gave the agency flexibility to determine what regulations are appropriate for each type of product, based on scientific evidence and factors such as their appeal to kids and the health harms they cause. In developing regulations, the FDA can take into account whether products are marketed to and used by kids or adults. Specific regulations the FDA could impose include restrictions on marketing and sales to kids and on flavorings that appeal to kids.
Q: How would FDA regulations affect the cigar industry?
A: The FDA has not yet proposed any specific regulations, but there is no evidence that the FDA would curtail the cigar industry's ability to market and sell its products to adults. The FDA should take action to prevent the marketing and sale of tobacco products to kids, including the cheap, sweet-flavored cigars that appear to be growing in popularity with kids.
Q: Does the cigar industry target kids?
A: Many cigar products are sold with fruit and candy flavors, colorful packaging and cheap prices that make them appealing and affordable to kids. Flavors available include chocolate, strawberry, grape, peach, watermelon, sour apple, mango and banana. Unfortunately, these tactics work. Cigar smoking is the second most common form of tobacco use among youth, with recent surveys showing 17.8 percent of high school boys smoke cigars.
Matthew L. Myers is the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, based in Washington D.C
Also, Morning Call columnist Paul Carpenter advocates counterproductive FDA deeming regulation for OTP simply because its opposed by cigar companies and members of Congress from PA.
With cigars, politicians protect Americans from getting the best
Cigar industry leads charmed life - mcall.com
No one can deny that the American cigar industry leads a charmed life, especially in Pennsylvania.
First came the Cuban trade embargo half a century ago, leaving Americans as the only people in the world who cannot legally obtain the world's best cigars, forcing them to puff on inferior knockoff stogies made of tobacco grown in places like the Dominican Republic.
Later, Pennsylvania politicians, responding to the generosity of U.S. cigar industry lobbyists, made Pennsylvania nearly the only state in America that does not tax either cigars or spit tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco).
That's not a unique Harrisburg trait; Pennsylvania also is the only gas-producing state that decided not to charge drilling companies a severance tax on the billions of dollars in profits they grab by devastating state forests and streams. Again, the severance tax non-action came after the industry dumped millions of dollars in so-called "political campaign contributions" into politicians' coffers. (Drillers pay peanuts in the form of "impact fees" instead.)
In 2010, Harrisburg defeated a proposal to end tax loopholes for cigars and spit tobacco, and that meant $41 million less revenue for other state needs. The Legislature more than made up for that shortfall by cutting spending on health and human services, including $34 million in cuts for mental health services and more than $8 million slashed from libraries and literacy programs. (I'm told librarians are notoriously deficient when it comes to making "political campaign contributions.")
Most recently, we have seen our congressional delegation marching in lock step to the cigar industry's tunes by moving to block a plan by the Federal Food and Drug Administration to regulate large cigars the way cigarettes are regulated.
As reported in The Morning Call on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from the Lehigh Valley, visited Bethlehem for a "gathering" at the Cigars International warehouse, where he expressed his opposition to the FDA proposal.
Toomey, the story said, is a co-sponsor of a bill to exclude big cigars from FDA regulations designed to protect the public. Provisions in the Tobacco Control Act of 2009 stipulate such rules for all tobacco products, but it is the position of the cigar industry (and, presumably, Toomey) that cigars are not tobacco products.
Apart from that preposterous stance, the parts of the FDA plan that horrify the cigar industry are required warnings about the health risks of cigars, as now given on cigarette packs, and steps to screen customers and restrict online sales so that children do not wind up chomping stogies.
The story noted that Pennsylvania's other U.S. senator, Democrat Bob Casey, is also a co-sponsor of the measure to exclude big cigars from regulations, and U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Lehigh Valley, is co-sponsor of a similar measure in the House.
I do not quite understand why the U.S. cigar industry deserves to be so lovingly protected, but I can remember the first major step in that direction.
In 1962, when many U.S. politicians were horrified over the advent of Fidel Castro's communist regime in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy imposed a trade embargo, which was sure to cripple that island's economy and restore democracy.
(Never mind that Castro overthrew a monstrous and corrupt dictator. Also never mind that JFK, just hours before he imposed the embargo to deprive all other Americans of Cuban cigars, made sure his flunkies purchased a huge stash of such cigars for himself.)
A half-century later, the commies still hold Cuba and Americans still are the only people who can't legally get the best cigars.
Meanwhile, the American Olympians are wearing outfits made in China, which also is a communist country.
How does the logic of that go? Cuban commies bad but Chinese commies good?
By the way, China also is often accused of ignoring trademark rules and polluting our markets with knockoff products.
An example of that was reported by The Morning Call last year and involved C.F. Martin & Co. of Nazareth, maker of the world's finest guitars. Bogus copies of $2,500 Martin guitars, complete with the Martin label, were made in China and sold with price tags from $100 to $600.
In the cigar industry, knockoff cigars with Cuban labels are grown in the Dominican Republic, but all that did not seem to bother Toomey and his "gathering."
Toomey and his colleagues say they want to save jobs in the cigar industry, but in 2009 a federal report said 6,000 new jobs will be created in America if the Cuban trade embargo is relaxed. The jobs, the report said, include those involving $365 million a year in U.S. exports to Cuba and imports from Cuba, especially the finest cigars.
Conservative Republicans like Toomey often pretend they favor the competition of free enterprise and free trade. So if they truly want to help the job situation in the cigar industry, think of the shot in the arm that would come if Americans suddenly were allowed to buy the world's best cigars.
The only disadvantage would be to people who want to keep getting protected from competition so they can peddle their untaxed and unregulated knockoff stogies.
Sen. Pat Toomey pushes to exclude large and premium cigars from FDA regulation
Toomey pushes to exclude large and premium cigars from FDA regulation - mcall.com
today's Allentown Morning Call published the following op/eds:
Allentown Morning Call Point/Counterpoint: Should the FDA regulate cigars?
No: Bill Godshall, Smokefree Pennsylvania
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-no-point-counterpoint-fda-cigars-20120810,0,2992929.story[/SIZE]
Q: Should the Food and Drug Administration have the power to regulate large and premium cigars?
A: Although Congress granted the Food and Drug Administration the legal authority to regulate currently unregulated tobacco products under Chapter IX of the tobacco Control Act, the agency can only do so "if the Secretary (of the Department of Health and Human Services) determines that such regulation would be appropriate for the protection of the public health." But there is no evidence that public health would benefit if those regulations are applied to cigars, pipe tobacco, e-cigarettes or any other currently unregulated tobacco product.
Q: What are the health risks of smoking large or premium cigars?
A: The disease risks of smoking large cigars are significantly lower than the risks of cigarette smoking because the vast majority of large cigar smokers don't inhale the smoke and don't smoke daily. While 75 percent of cigarette smokers inhale the smoke and smoke multiple cigarettes daily, fewer than 5 percent of premium cigar smokers do so.
Q: What type of regulations do you think the FDA would implement?
A: Obama's FDA has already stated its intent to regulate cigars, e-cigarettes and all other currently unregulated tobacco products under Chapter IX of the Tobacco Control Act, which now applies to cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll your own, and smokeless tobacco. If Obama isn't reelected this year, the FDA may never propose these unwarranted regulations.
Q: How would FDA regulations affect the cigar industry?
A: Chapter IX regulations would increase cigar prices and put many small companies out of business. The only beneficiaries of FDA cigar regulations would be Philip Morris and several other large companies that can cost effectively comply and/or that have already been complying with the regulations since 2009 for cigarette and/or smokeless tobacco products. That's probably why Philip Morris opposes the legislation to exempt premium cigars from FDA regulation, as the company also lobbied Congress to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.
Q: Does the cigar industry target kids?
A: Despite repeated allegations by anti-tobacco extremists, there is no evidence that cigar companies target market to youth. The primary reason Congress required the FDA to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, but not cigars or other unregulated tobacco products, was because cigarettes and moist snuff were target marketed to youth in past decades. Besides, all 50 states have long banned cigar sales to minors, and illegal tobacco sales to minors have dramatically declined during the past 20 years to the lowest rates on record.
Bill Godshall is the executive director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, based in Pittsburgh
Allentown Morning Call Point/Counterpoint: Should the FDA regulate cigars?
Yes: Matt Myers, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-yes-point-counterpoint-fda-cigars-20120810,0,7429749.story
[/SIZE]
Q: Should the Food and Drug Administration have the power to regulate large and premium cigars?
A: All tobacco products including cigars harm health, and all should be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent kids from using them and reduce the death and disease they cause. In fact, the FDA regulates products far less hazardous than cigars. Exempting some products from regulation creates loopholes that tobacco companies exploit to market to children and avoid public health regulations. For example, when the FDA prohibited candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes, tobacco companies introduced cigarette-like cigars with similar flavors and similar appeal to kids. Congress should reject legislation that would exempt some cigars from FDA regulation. Congress shouldn't create yet another loophole that helps tobacco companies market to kids.
Q: What are the health risks of smoking large or premium cigars?
A: According to the U.S. Surgeon General and the National Cancer Institute, cigar smoking causes cancer of the oral cavity (lip, tongue, mouth and throat), larynx (voice box), esophagus and lung, as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease.
Q: What type of regulations should the FDA implement?
A: The 2009 law that gave the FDA authority over tobacco products gave the agency flexibility to determine what regulations are appropriate for each type of product, based on scientific evidence and factors such as their appeal to kids and the health harms they cause. In developing regulations, the FDA can take into account whether products are marketed to and used by kids or adults. Specific regulations the FDA could impose include restrictions on marketing and sales to kids and on flavorings that appeal to kids.
Q: How would FDA regulations affect the cigar industry?
A: The FDA has not yet proposed any specific regulations, but there is no evidence that the FDA would curtail the cigar industry's ability to market and sell its products to adults. The FDA should take action to prevent the marketing and sale of tobacco products to kids, including the cheap, sweet-flavored cigars that appear to be growing in popularity with kids.
Q: Does the cigar industry target kids?
A: Many cigar products are sold with fruit and candy flavors, colorful packaging and cheap prices that make them appealing and affordable to kids. Flavors available include chocolate, strawberry, grape, peach, watermelon, sour apple, mango and banana. Unfortunately, these tactics work. Cigar smoking is the second most common form of tobacco use among youth, with recent surveys showing 17.8 percent of high school boys smoke cigars.
Matthew L. Myers is the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, based in Washington D.C
Also, Morning Call columnist Paul Carpenter advocates counterproductive FDA deeming regulation for OTP simply because its opposed by cigar companies and members of Congress from PA.
With cigars, politicians protect Americans from getting the best
Cigar industry leads charmed life - mcall.com
No one can deny that the American cigar industry leads a charmed life, especially in Pennsylvania.
First came the Cuban trade embargo half a century ago, leaving Americans as the only people in the world who cannot legally obtain the world's best cigars, forcing them to puff on inferior knockoff stogies made of tobacco grown in places like the Dominican Republic.
Later, Pennsylvania politicians, responding to the generosity of U.S. cigar industry lobbyists, made Pennsylvania nearly the only state in America that does not tax either cigars or spit tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco).
That's not a unique Harrisburg trait; Pennsylvania also is the only gas-producing state that decided not to charge drilling companies a severance tax on the billions of dollars in profits they grab by devastating state forests and streams. Again, the severance tax non-action came after the industry dumped millions of dollars in so-called "political campaign contributions" into politicians' coffers. (Drillers pay peanuts in the form of "impact fees" instead.)
In 2010, Harrisburg defeated a proposal to end tax loopholes for cigars and spit tobacco, and that meant $41 million less revenue for other state needs. The Legislature more than made up for that shortfall by cutting spending on health and human services, including $34 million in cuts for mental health services and more than $8 million slashed from libraries and literacy programs. (I'm told librarians are notoriously deficient when it comes to making "political campaign contributions.")
Most recently, we have seen our congressional delegation marching in lock step to the cigar industry's tunes by moving to block a plan by the Federal Food and Drug Administration to regulate large cigars the way cigarettes are regulated.
As reported in The Morning Call on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from the Lehigh Valley, visited Bethlehem for a "gathering" at the Cigars International warehouse, where he expressed his opposition to the FDA proposal.
Toomey, the story said, is a co-sponsor of a bill to exclude big cigars from FDA regulations designed to protect the public. Provisions in the Tobacco Control Act of 2009 stipulate such rules for all tobacco products, but it is the position of the cigar industry (and, presumably, Toomey) that cigars are not tobacco products.
Apart from that preposterous stance, the parts of the FDA plan that horrify the cigar industry are required warnings about the health risks of cigars, as now given on cigarette packs, and steps to screen customers and restrict online sales so that children do not wind up chomping stogies.
The story noted that Pennsylvania's other U.S. senator, Democrat Bob Casey, is also a co-sponsor of the measure to exclude big cigars from regulations, and U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Lehigh Valley, is co-sponsor of a similar measure in the House.
I do not quite understand why the U.S. cigar industry deserves to be so lovingly protected, but I can remember the first major step in that direction.
In 1962, when many U.S. politicians were horrified over the advent of Fidel Castro's communist regime in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy imposed a trade embargo, which was sure to cripple that island's economy and restore democracy.
(Never mind that Castro overthrew a monstrous and corrupt dictator. Also never mind that JFK, just hours before he imposed the embargo to deprive all other Americans of Cuban cigars, made sure his flunkies purchased a huge stash of such cigars for himself.)
A half-century later, the commies still hold Cuba and Americans still are the only people who can't legally get the best cigars.
Meanwhile, the American Olympians are wearing outfits made in China, which also is a communist country.
How does the logic of that go? Cuban commies bad but Chinese commies good?
By the way, China also is often accused of ignoring trademark rules and polluting our markets with knockoff products.
An example of that was reported by The Morning Call last year and involved C.F. Martin & Co. of Nazareth, maker of the world's finest guitars. Bogus copies of $2,500 Martin guitars, complete with the Martin label, were made in China and sold with price tags from $100 to $600.
In the cigar industry, knockoff cigars with Cuban labels are grown in the Dominican Republic, but all that did not seem to bother Toomey and his "gathering."
Toomey and his colleagues say they want to save jobs in the cigar industry, but in 2009 a federal report said 6,000 new jobs will be created in America if the Cuban trade embargo is relaxed. The jobs, the report said, include those involving $365 million a year in U.S. exports to Cuba and imports from Cuba, especially the finest cigars.
Conservative Republicans like Toomey often pretend they favor the competition of free enterprise and free trade. So if they truly want to help the job situation in the cigar industry, think of the shot in the arm that would come if Americans suddenly were allowed to buy the world's best cigars.
The only disadvantage would be to people who want to keep getting protected from competition so they can peddle their untaxed and unregulated knockoff stogies.
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