No Smoking Allowed – HR1108 – Cigarette / Tobacco Legislation

AUTHOR: Crystal Fontaine

It was glamorous, stylish, and even sexy. Photos portrayed beautiful women and men as an advertised: Try it and you’ll be like us. Popular celebrities were walking advertisements as well, influencing their adoring public. Today, the affects of this addictive substance on health is well known. Where long ago it was once looked upon as cool, many people now view it as disgusting and repulsive. The substance is known as tobacco, which is contained in products such as cigarettes.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, or H.R. 1108, protects public health by providing the Drug and Food Administration with certain authority to regulate tobacco products. Congress believes it is in the public interest to enact this legislation. The benefits to the American people would be significant in human and economic terms. The act lists numerous Congressional findings. Over the years, the Scientific and medical communities have concluded that tobacco products are intrinsically hazardous and cause cancer, heart-disease, and other serious unfavorable health affects. Today, many new users are usually under the legal age limit to purchase the products. Unfortunately, past efforts to curtail tobacco used by adolescents by inhibiting advertising and marketing has been unsuccessful; therefore, comprehensive restrictions on the sale promotion and distribution of such products are needed. Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of premature death in America. This product causes over 400,000 deaths in the U.S each year and roughly 8,600,000Americans have chronic illness linked to smoking.

Under the act, the Secretary shall establish within the Food and Drug Administration the Center for Tobacco Products, which shall report to the Commissioner of Food and Drugs. Each tobacco product manufacturer or importer shall submit various types