Tobacco companies will soon have to change marketing campaigns and eliminate products geared toward kids to comply with new FDA regulations.
Ohio's Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved legislation on May 20 that gives the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products for the first time in history. The new law requires restrictions on advertising to youth, according to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
Philip Morris USA has supported legislation that would provide for tough but reasonable federal regulation of tobacco products by the Food and Drug Administration for more than eight years
according to an official statement released by Philip Morris USA.
Congressional members found that most new tobacco users are under the minimum legal age to purchase tobacco products, according to the act. The act also cited studies revealing that advertising heavily influences adolescents to use tobacco products.
(The tobacco companies) want young smokers because the younger you get you have a customer for life said Lauren Borovicka, a certified health education specialist for the Athens City-County Health Department.
Tobacco companies advertise such products as flavored cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to appeal to children, according to a report by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
As part of the new legislation, the FDA will ban the sale of cigarette flavor varieties other than tobacco and menthol.
In a 2004 study, researchers from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute found that nearly 20 percent of young smokers between the ages of 16-17 use Camel-flavored cigarettes, whereas less than 10 percent of smokers between 24-25 smoke flavored products.
I feel (tobacco companies) are always 5 steps ahead of public health unfortunately
Borovika said. Just when we think we are catching up
they always come out with something new.
Children can also easily steal smokeless tobacco products because the law doesn't require store owners to keep them behind the counter, Borovicka said.
Tobacco companies will even reimburse merchants for stolen tobacco products, according to the American Lung Association.
With the smokeless tobacco
if kids steal those
the tobacco companies reimburse them so there's not really a reason
for store owners to even care
Borovicka said.
Even though the Master Settlement Agreement, which passed in 1998, previously placed restrictions on the tobacco companies, she said that more needs to be done to regulate the industry.
I definitely think regulating smoking in public places was a positive change for Ohio
said Regina Warfel, a graduate student studying health psychology. So
I also think that the regulation of tobacco advertisements is a positive change because teens are more susceptible to advertising and there's obviously huge health concerns that come with smoking.
