Tobacco Facts.

President Barack Obama, who still struggles with his own addiction to cigarettes, signed into law Monday the most sweeping anti-tobacco legislation to pass in decades.

The law gives the Food and Drug Administration broad new authority to regulate the marketing and manufacture of tobacco products. It bans fruit- and spice-flavored cigarettes, slaps expansive new warnings on packages and gets rid of the monikers “light” and “low-tar.”

It also allows the FDA to sharply reduce, though not eliminate, the addictive chemical nicotine.

Obama said the new law would curtail the “constant, insidious” advertising that tobacco companies aimed at kids. He pointed out that nearly 90 percent of smokers start before age 18.

“I know; I was one of those teenagers,” Obama said. “I know how hard it is to break the habit once you’ve started.”

Tobacco-related diseases cost an estimated $100 billion a year and kill nearly 400,000 Americans annually.

“FDA oversight over tobacco products will fundamentally change the entire tobacco industry and will save countless lives in the decades to come,” said Stephen J. Nolan, chairman of the American Lung Association’s board of directors.

Among those at the White House on Monday was Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat from Wilson, where auctioneers used to rattle off leaf prices after harvest each fall. He represents one of the heaviest tobacco-farming districts in the nation.

“This has been a very difficult issue for me,” Butterfield said. “But when I take a step back and look at it objectively, there’s no question we need to reduce smoking. … We need to be realistic about the issue.”

In a sign of tobacco’s waning power in Washington, the legislation passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, even as a new Gallup Poll released Monday suggests a slight majority of Americans disapprove of the restrictions.

In a telephone survey conducted June 14 through June 17, 46 percent of respondents said they approve of the law expanding the government’s power to regulate the marketing and manufacture of tobacco products. Fifty-two percent said they opposed the law. The poll’s margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

North Carolina Sens. Richard Burr, a Republican, and Kay Hagan, a Democrat, fought the legislation.

Burr, whose hometown Winston-Salem is the headquarters for Reynolds America tobacco company, stretched debate on the Senate floor to nearly two weeks in an effort to slow down the bill. He argued that the FDA was ill-equipped to handle new regulatory duties.

Hagan, whose hometown Greensboro is home to Lorillard Tobacco Co., was the only Democrat in the Senate voting against the bill. She argued the bill would cost manufacturing jobs and hurt tobacco farmers.

Obama and other supporters said passing the bill is a victory over the deceit and power of tobacco companies’ lobby on Capitol Hill.

“Since at least the middle of the last century, we’ve known about the harmful and often deadly effects of tobacco products,” Obama said.

Earlier this month, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs acknowledged that the president continues his personal fight against cigarettes.

But Obama ignored a question from the press as he was shaking visitors’ hands after the ceremony.

“Mr. President, how difficult has your struggle been with smoking?” CNN’s Dan Lothian asked.

Obama glanced up, then turned away.

© Copyright: Newsobserver

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