Title
To acknowledge the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
Body
WHEREAS, a consensus exists within the scientific and medical communities that tobacco products are inherently dangerous and cause cancer, heart disease, and other serious adverse health effects; and
WHEREAS, virtually all new users of tobacco products are under the minimum legal age to purchase such products; and
WHEREAS, tobacco advertising and marketing contribute significantly to the use of nicotine-containing tobacco products by adolescents; and
WHEREAS, Federal ,State, and local governments have lacked the legal and regulatory authority and resources they need to address comprehensively the public health and societal problems caused by the use of tobacco products; and
WHEREAS, reducing the use of tobacco by minors by 50 percent would prevent well over 10,000,000 of today's children from becoming regular, daily smokers, saving over 3,000,000 of them from premature death due to tobacco-induced disease. Such a reduction in youth smoking would also result in approximately $75,000,000,000 in savings attributable to reduced health care costs; and
WHEREAS, advertising, marketing, and promotion of tobacco products have been especially directed to attract young persons to use tobacco products, and these efforts have resulted in increased use of such products by youth; and
WHEREAS, children are exposed to substantial and unavoidable tobacco advertising that leads to favorable beliefs about tobacco use, plays a role in leading young people to overestimate the prevalence of tobacco use, and increases the number of young people who begin to use tobacco; and
WHEREAS, Columbus, Ohio has been chosen as test market for new tobacco products, advertising, and promotional give-away of nicotine containing products; and
WHEREAS, The Food and Drug Administration is a regulatory agency with the scientific expertise to identify harmful substances in products to which consumers are exposed, to design standards to limit exposure to those substances, to evaluate scientific studies supporting claims about the safety of products, and to evaluate the impact of labels, labeling, and advertising on consumer behavior in order to reduce the risk of harm and promote understanding of the impact of the product on health. In connection with its mandate to promote health and reduce the risk of harm, the Food and Drug Administration routinely makes decisions about whether and how products may be marketed in the United States; and
WHEREAS, Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed by The U.S. House of Representatives on April 2, 2009, and is currently being considered in the U.S. Senate. If passed and signed into law, it would give the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. This authority would allow the FDA to:
· Stop the marketing of tobacco products to minors
· Prevent false health claims about tobacco
· Require tobacco companies to disclose all ingredients in their tobacco products
· Require tobacco companies to reduce harmful ingredients in their tobacco products
· Change the health warnings on tobacco products; now, therefore
Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Columbus:
That we do hereby encourage further education, awareness, and public policy to reduce tobacco use and protect the public health.