August 6, 2014
Recent Research, some conducted by the FDA, Reinforces Need for Regulation of ALL Tobacco Products to Protect Health
Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0189
LM Dutra, ScD1; RA SA Glantz, PhD1
1 Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
University of California San Francisco
August 1, 2014
Two recent supplements to peer-reviewed journals have provided additional support for the need for the FDA to regulate all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. The August 2014 supplement in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that was entirely devoted to publishing research conducted by or with FDA scientists, revealed high levels of use of both conventional and nonconventional tobacco products among youth in the U.S., including e-cigarettes and cigars. Likewise, the July 2014 Tobacco Control supplement showed high levels of exposure to e-cigarettes in the media. This recent evidence supports the need for the FDA to provide improved warning labels for all tobacco products; regulate all types of cigars as addictive products that endanger the health of youth; and regulate the advertising, product design, and sales of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.
Samples for supplements
August 6, 2014
Today a group of leading economists released a report that is sharply critical of the way that the FDA (and, by implication, the OMB) does cost-benefit analysis of tobacco regulations, in particular saying that the consumer surplus discount the FDA/OMB applies to health benefits of regulation is simply wrong. It is espcially significant that one of the authors of the analysis if Jonathan Gruber, whose work the FDA cites to justify applying the consumer surplus discount discount. The economists also take FDA to task for grossly understimating the benefits of reducing tobacco use.
Like the paper Anna Song, Paul Brown and I published a few months ago on the strong evidence that consumer surplus simply does not make sense when dealing with an addictive substance like tobacco, the economists framed their analysis as a critique of the FDA's warning label rule. As we pointed out in the public comment we submitted on the deeming rule based on this paper, all the same issues apply, however, to the deeming rule.
August 3, 2014
Check it out at http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/02/6601133/california-democrats-accepting....
We are back to the bad old days of tobacco industry dominance in state politics (together with all the old excuses) and need to raise a fuss about it.
August 2, 2014
The story, "Lobbyists Bidding to Block Government Regs Set Sights on Secretive White House Office:When Washington lobbyists fail to derail regulations proposed by federal agencies, they often find a receptive ear within the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an arm of the White House Office of Management and Budget that conducts much of its business in secret," is not about FDA, but shows how Obama, like his predicessors since Reagan are using OIRA to brock health and safety regulations.
So much for "independent" agencies.
Check it out at http://www.propublica.org/article/lobbyists-bidding-block-government-reg...
White House OMB ponders whether smoking might be worth it after all. Tobacco Teachings, Up in Smoke?
August 1, 2014
Lisa Heinzerling, the Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., Professor of Law, Georgetown Law just posted an amazing essay on the blog of the American Constitution Society that explores the logical consequences of the Obama Administration's use of a "consumer surplus" discount to the benefits of not using tobacco.
This is a must-read piece that illustrates just how silly (and obscene) what the While House is doing under the guise of economic cost-benefit analysis.
Here's what she had to say: