The Biden administration has opposed a bill that would prevent the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from banning menthol in cigarettes.
In its draft of the Fiscal Year 2024 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Bill, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations made it clear that it opposed any bill that would prevent the FDA from banning menthol in cigarettes, prohibiting characterizing flavours in all cigars or setting a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes, according to the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO).
The White House went on to say that it strongly apposes the bill and that President Biden would veto it should it pass Congress. The White House is of the opinion that the FDA should not be hindered from using funds to implement and enforce the menthol cigarette and flavoured cigar ban as follows:
“The administration is concerned that the committee bill also threatens FDA’s ability to protect the nation’s youth from tobacco products by prohibiting FDA from eliminating menthol in cigarettes, flavors in cigars and from setting science-based nicotine standards that reduce the addictive properties of these products. Menthol in cigarettes and characterizing flavors in cigars, such as fruit punch and cocoa, increases smoking appeal, particularly among youth and young adults, leads to regular tobacco use, and decreases the likelihood of cessation. More than a half million youth in the United States use flavored cigars. FDA’s work on tobacco is a critical piece of the Administration’s reignited Cancer Moonshot to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years.”
The White House.
The bill is currently being considered by the U.S. House Rules Committee but any action has been postponed and it is expected that the bill will be taken up again once Congress returns from its August recess in September.
source : TobaccoJournal.com
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