[UPDATED] Jeffersonville Leaders Urge Congress to Support New Legislation

Updated Press Release

[JEFFERSONVILLE, IN]—Southern Indiana and statewide health, faith and community leaders rallied today to urge Representative Baron Hill to protect Indiana’s kids from tobacco by doing everything he can to pass legislation that would grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over tobacco. Identical, bipartisan legislation granting FDA this authority (S. 625/ H.R. 1108) has been introduced by U.S. Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA). As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the legislation, Representative Hill’s support will be critical to enactment of the legislation.

"Representative Hill has a critical role to play in ensuring that strong FDA tobacco regulation is enacted into law,” said family doctor and former state health commissioner Richard Feldman, MD.

"The tobacco industry spends $425 million a year marketing its products in Indiana and it costs Hoosiers more than $2 billion per year. Until Representative Hill and the entire Congressional delegation grant the FDA authority over tobacco, the tobacco industry will continue to market to our children. It's time for Rep. Hill to stand up for Indiana's kids and help pass strong FDA legislation." The proposed legislation enjoys widespread bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.

Among other things, the proposed legislation would require that tobacco companies disclose the contents of tobacco products and remove harmful ingredients; crack down on tobacco marketing and sales to kids; stop tobacco companies from misleading the public about health risks of their products; and require larger, more effective health warnings on cigarette packs. Despite all the harm they cause, tobacco products are exempt from basic health and safety regulations that apply to other products, such as food, drugs, cosmetics and even dog food. The tobacco companies continue to take advantage of this lack of regulation to market their deadly and addictive products to our children, deceive consumers about the harm their products cause, make changes to their products without disclosing them (such as secretly increasing nicotine levels in cigarette smoke, as recent studies have shown), and resist any meaningful change to make their products less harmful.

Congress has debated the issue of FDA authority over tobacco for nearly a decade. In 2004, the U.S. Senate voted 78-15 to pass FDA tobacco legislation as an amendment to a corporate tax bill, but it was killed in the conference committee. Tobacco use is the nation’s leading preventable cause of death, killing more than 400,000 people and costing more than $96 billion in health care costs each year. In Indiana, tobacco use kills 9,800 residents, and 21.9 percent of high school students smoke. Cigarettes directly cost the state $7.57 in health care and productivity costs for each pack sold in Indiana.

Source: Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids