Nipping the Habit in the Bud

It has been a year since the Food and Drug Administration first proposed measures to limit the appeal and availability of cigarettes to young people, and the White House is now reviewing the FDA’s final recommendations as the last step before putting them into effect. In the interim have come disturbing indications that teenage smoking, after declining for some years, is on the rise.

Federal officials say that about 3,000 teenagers begin smoking every day, with about one-third of them destined to die from tobacco-related diseases if they remain smokers. Keeping smokers hooked is, of course, what the tobacco companies require for success. It’s now indisputably clear that nicotine in tobacco is the agent--and an extremely powerful one--responsible for addiction to smoking. That’s why the FDA last year for the first time labeled nicotine an addictive drug, meaning one that demands careful regulation.

In its draft regulations a year ago the FDA called for outlawing tobacco sales to anyone under 18, banning cigarette vending machines, cigarette give-aways and mail-order sales and requiring tobacco sales to be on a face-to-face basis, with the vendor to seek proof that a buyer was at least 18. Further, the FDA proposed limits on tobacco advertising and a ban on sales of such products as hats and T-shirts carrying tobacco brand names or logos. Two recent Supreme Court rulings in 1st Amendment cases challenging restrictions on advertising may have forced the FDA to revise or drop some of these latter proposals.

The White House won’t say what the final regulations will look like or when--before or after the Nov. 5 election--they will be announced. The Tobacco Institute, a trade organization, is suing to block the rules.

The likelihood of perhaps prolonged litigation is all the more reason why the new regulations should be promulgated quickly. And, it hardly needs saying, those rules should follow as closely as possible the FDA’s initial tough proposals. For this is not, as some political apologists for cigarette companies claim, an unfair singling out of a particular industry for punitive measures. It is an overdue effort to protect public health by trying to insulate young people from a health-destroying addiction. Study after study has shown that most smokers begin as teenagers, as children. Break that link and hundreds of thousands of lives a year can be saved. That’s not a political option but a public policy imperative.