Coalition wants FDA authority over tobacco
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The United Methodist Church is a
member of Faith United Against Tobacco, a religious coalition urging
U.S. lawmakers to give the Food and Drug Administration authority over
tobacco products. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.
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A UMNS Report
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Feb. 28, 2007
A coalition of faith leaders that includes The United Methodist
Church testified Feb. 27 at a Senate hearing in Washington in support of
legislation to give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority
over tobacco products.
Faith United Against Tobacco, a coalition of clergy and lay members,
supports legislation that would give the FDA power to reduce nicotine
levels, require more information on tobacco product labels and restrict
marketing to children and teenagers, said the Rev. Cynthia Abrams,
director of alcohol, other drugs and health care at the United Methodist
Board of Church and Society, the church's social action agency.
On Feb. 26, the faith coalition sent a letter to all members of Congress urging them to support the legislation.
"We have spoken out on this issue because we have spent too much time
burying mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers who die because they
became addicted to tobacco products when they were young," the letter
says. "We know that the tobacco companies continue to spend billions of
dollars marketing their deadly product to children and far too many high
school students smoke. It is time to protect our children and
families."
The United Methodist Church has a long history of opposing the use of tobacco products.
In the 2004 United Methodist Book of Discipline (Para. 162), the church recommends "total abstinence" from tobacco use. In the Book of Resolutions
(Para. 281), the church calls for Congress "to provide the authority to
the FDA to regulate the ingredients of tobacco products, their devices,
and their products of combustion in order to render harmless the
greatest menace to human life in our country's history."
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act is sponsored by
Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Reps.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Tom Davis, R-Va.
Abrams said one of the most important components of the legislation
would restrict how the tobacco industry markets and sells its products
to young people. The industry has introduced fruit- and candy-flavored
cigarettes and advertising that appeals to youth, she noted.
"Candy-flavored cigarettes are obviously designed to appeal to people
who don't like the taste of cigarettes, and who would that be but
people who haven't tried them before-usually young people," she said.
"Studies have shown the earlier you start someone drinking or
smoking, the more likely they are to have lifelong addiction. They are
trying to create a larger customer base."
The legislation also would ban tobacco company advertisements at
major sporting events and near schools and playgrounds and would prevent
the companies from giving away free samples.
"The religious community-from the left to the right of the political
spectrum-agrees that tobacco must be regulated in the United States,"
said Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church
and Society.
"For decades, women, men and children have been lured into tobacco
addiction by an industry free from oversight of the product they push.
There is no reason that tobacco should not have to bear the same health
scrutiny we require of nearly every other product that has an impact on
human health and life."
The coalition said tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of
death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people and costing
more than $96 billion in health care bills each year. Research shows
about 90 percent of all smokers begin the habit in their teens or
earlier.
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
Tobacco
Faith United Against Tobacco
United Methodist Board of Church and Society
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions |