Last Puffs / WaPo Editorial

[Demeter]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052801082.html?referrer=email

Last Puffs

A blueprint to all but eliminate smoking in America

Tuesday, May 29, 2007; A12



OVER THE PAST few decades, a number of states have pioneered techniques to discourage smoking -- and they have been remarkably effective, cutting the prevalence of Americans who smoke by 58 percent since 1965. Educational programs, cigarette excise taxes, smoking bans at workplaces -- all have contributed to this success. But, warns the Institute of Medicine in a report released last week, the smoking rate in the United States is flattening at about 20 percent -- which translates into nearly half a million deaths and about $89 billion in health-care costs a year.

For the conceivable future, there will be smokers. But the goal, the institute says, should be to "reduce smoking so substantially that it is no longer a significant public health problem for our nation." It's an ambitious aim but not inconceivable: The report estimates that the smoking rate could halve by 2025 if states and the federal government more aggressively employ proven anti-smoking measures such as excise taxes. States with low cigarette taxes, for example, should raise them to match states with higher excises to prevent cross-border smuggling.

The federal government will also need new tools to combat smoking. In particular, the Food and Drug Administration should have the authority to regulate tobacco products. Among other things, the FDA should be able to require that tobacco companies fully disclose the contents of their products, including the amount of nicotine a consumer receives; to continually revise large warning labels on packaging; and to mandate reductions in the amount of nicotine delivered. States, meanwhile, should be allowed to enact more restrictive measures.

Past efforts to confer this power on the FDA failed at the hands of hostile Republican majorities. But this year a bill, introduced by Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) in the Senate and Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) in the House, looks to have a better chance. It has attracted 167 co-sponsors in the House and 48 in the Senate. Congress should pass the bill and save a lot of lives.


DID YOU SEE ANYTHING IN THERE ABOUT THE CORPORATE WELFARE--GROWING SUBSIDIES, ETC., THAT CONGRESS COULD CUT OUT AND MAKE IT "REAL"? NEITHER DID I.