Let the FDA butt in

TOBACCO KILLS more than 400,000 Americans each year, but in the past the industry has used its political power in Washington to fend off strict regulation. That should change with a bill that grants the Food and Drug Administration authority over the manufacturing and marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products. The bill has its shortcomings, but still is a step forward in reducing the toll of smoking on health.

President Clinton tried to give the FDA this power by executive fiat in 1996, but the Supreme Court shot his move down on a 5-to-4 vote in 2000. After that, Republican leaders in Congress blocked legislative attempts to give the agency authority over tobacco products. Now the Senate health committee chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy is poised today to approve a tobacco regulatory bill that draws heavily on Massachusetts' past efforts to bring this industry to heel.

The bill stops short of giving the FDA the right to ban cigarettes completely or to require the elimination of nicotine, the highly addictive substance found in tobacco. Still, the agency would be able to rule out specific toxic materials and regulate the marketing of tobacco products, with an eye toward keeping young people from picking up the habit.

A backer of the bill and longtime advocate of tobacco regulation in Massachusetts, Dr. Greg Connolly of the Harvard School of Public Health, notes that the bill would let the FDA reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes to that in tomatoes.

The portion of the population that smokes dropped from about one-quarter in 1997 to one-fifth in 2005, but since then has stayed at about that level. Each day, 4,000 young people try their first cigarette. Under the bill, the FDA could not only limit advertising aimed at children but also set down strict requirements prohibiting the sales of cigarettes to minors. The bill would also authorize the agency to force the industry to place stronger and more conspicuous warnings on its products of the health effects of smoking, and to publicize all the ingredients in tobacco smoke, including known carcinogens.

The FDA's commissioner, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, does not welcome the power over tobacco that the bill would give him. He says he is concerned that the agency will be in the position of seeming to approve products that will still be unsafe, despite its efforts. This is a legitimate worry. But on the other side of the ledger, FDA regulation would provide an opportunity to reduce the harm that tobacco does, especially to young people.

That is why a committee of the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, called in May for FDA regulation of tobacco. The Democratic takeover of Congress in November will yield one of its signal benefits to the public if Congress approves the bill before Kennedy's committee.

Correction: In this editorial, the name of Dr. Greg Connolly, a Harvard School of Public Health professor, was misspelled.