FDA allows smokers to know what's inside tobacco products!

[ColbertWatcher]

From the Los Angeles Times
FDA may get new authority over tobacco products
For the first time, smokers may be able to see what's in the products they consume. Harmful additives could be limited, but critics say making cigarettes safer could make smokers less inclined to quit
By Noam N. Levey
May 30, 2009

(...)

The legislation, long resisted by the tobacco industry, could allow consumers to see for the first time what chemicals and other additives tobacco companies put in their products. It would empower the Food and Drug Administration to put new limits on harmful ingredients and prohibit tobacco companies from marketing "light" cigarettes.

And it would give the FDA new authority to enlarge warning labels and severely restrict full-color advertising for cigarettes and other tobacco products.

Yet the victory, which eluded anti-tobacco advocates for decades, comes with challenges as well as promise, as federal officials are given never-before-used tools to control a product that is still linked to approximately 400,000 deaths every year in the United States.

(...)

Altria Group Inc. -- the parent company of industry leader Philip Morris, which may have an easier time maintaining its dominance in a more regulated market -- has endorsed the bill.

(more at the link)

--Los Angeles Times

[NYC_SKP]

1. "making cigarettes safer could make smokers less inclined to quit"

:crazy:

If the FDA was fulfilling their mandate, the chems wouldn't be in there to begin with.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Good point.

But, maybe now it won't be the FDA fighting the tobacco corporations by themselves, maybe some of the smokers who are now going to be able to see what they're inhaling will join them.

[alfredo]

3. It's about fucking time.

The tobacco lobby has lost power because they have abandoned the US for China and Latin America.

[1]

4. i like the new packs...

that's hot!

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Eew. Where are those being sold!? n/t

[Metta]

5. Mazel freaking tov. This is way past due thanks to industry/gov't stonewalling.

The opposite of sunlight being the best disinfectant.