DeLauro, Roybal-Allard Lead Amendment to Regulate Premium Cigars

WASHINGTON, DC (April 19, 2016) — At today’s House Appropriations Committee markup of the FY 2017 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) introduced an amendment to strike the bill’s Section 749, which exempts large and premium cigars from the 2009 regulations and requirements of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Under that Act, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was given the authority to oversee the manufacture, sale, and marketing of tobacco products, and the FDA has gradually been permitted to oversee specific categories of those products.

If today’s amendment had been passed, it would have allowed the FDA to move forward with finalizing a proposed rule to oversee cigars, e-cigarettes, and other tobacco products that the FDA does not currently regulate. Unfortunately, the amendment was not agreed to by a majority of committee members.

“Cigar smoke contains the same toxic and carcinogenic constituents found in cigarette smoke and it has been found to cause a variety of cancers and other diseases. This bill would allow flavored and some machine-made cigars to be exempted from all regulations. Inexpensive and flavored cigars are exactly the type of cigars that are attractive to young people,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “We need to be careful about setting precedents. Does Congress really want to start down the road of exempting certain tobacco products from FDA regulation? What’s next? E-cigarettes? Certain types of smokeless tobacco? Exempting these products from a science-based review by FDA would jeopardize FDA’s most important tool to protect our youth.”

“We cannot ignore the fact that cigars, like all tobacco products, cause cancer and an array of other health difficulties,” said Congresswoman Roybal-Allard. “Cigars endanger the health of the smoker and the health of everyone exposed to their secondhand smoke. We must remember that our committee’s primary concern must be the health of the American public –including our children, who are smoking cigars in higher numbers than ever before. We have a moral responsibility to protect our children from all tobacco products and to ensure the public is informed about the direct and secondhand carcinogenic impacts of cigars.”

Tobacco products kill more than 480,000 Americans a year, with over 16 million Americans suffering from smoking-related illnesses. Large and premium cigars contribute to this problem: according to the National Cancer Institute, cigar smoke contains higher levels of cancer-causing nitrosamines and tar than cigarettes. Furthermore, premium cigars’ larger size and longer smoking time creates greater exposure to carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, ammonia, cadmium, and other toxic substances.

As part of Section 749’s exemptions of certain cigars from regulation, it could exempt some inexpensive and flavored cigars which appeal to children. This exemption would come at a time when high school boys are smoking cigars at the same rate as cigarettes, and when more than 2,500 children each day are trying cigar smoking for the first time.

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