Editorial: Blowing smoke in our faces

Friday, April 21, 2000 | 9:40 a.m.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled one month ago that the Food and Drug Administration doesn't have the authority to regulate tobacco products, health care advocates worried that emasculating the FDA could result in abuses by a virtually unregulated industry that peddles deadly products. Well, it didn't take long for a tobacco company to decide to push the envelope after the court's decision. R.J. Reynolds is starting Internet sales of a cigarette that the company contends is less likely to cause cancer and other illnesses than would regular cigarettes.

The problem, though, is that currently there is no independent testing to determine whether this indeed is a safer cigarette. Let's not forget that in 1994 tobacco executives testified before Congress -- under oath -- that their companies didn't do anything to addict smokers or keep them hooked. Nobody believed them then, and they haven't done much in the interim to enhance their credibility. So when a company says it has developed a "safer" cigarette, it's going to elicit snickers of disbelief.

Still, as USA Today reported Thursday, if less harmful cigarettes can actually be produced, it does create a dilemma for public health advocates. On one hand, they obviously want people to stop smoking altogether. Yet, if people are going to smoke anyway, it raises the question of whether it is better to at least create a cigarette that isn't as harmful as those currently on the market.

Unfortunately, since the FDA can't regulate tobacco, there is no way to conduct independent scientific testing to gauge whether this cigarette is safe. In fact, there also is a possibility -- based on the industry's previous deceptive practices -- that they might be pushing a cigarette that not only is harmful, but because it is marketed as being "safer," also could end up hooking even more people to an unsafe product.

What's needed, then, is for Congress to immediately pass legislation that will provide the FDA with the power to regulate tobacco companies. After all, the Supreme Court didn't say that the FDA was forever barred from regulating tobacco products, it only ruled that Congress hadn't delegated the agency the specific authority to oversee cigarettes. Unfortunately it wasn't that long ago -- 1998 -- that Congress cowered before the tobacco industry when it failed to pass landmark legislation that would have made it crystal clear that the FDA had the power to regulate nicotine. It's long overdue for Congress to develop the backbone and finally take on this leviathan that needlessly has killed so many Americans.