::: ADIC Sri Lanka

US President Barack Obama signs the family smoking prevention and Tobacco Control Act on 22nd June 2009 in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington.

At a ceremony in the Rose Garden, Obama signed into law, one of the most sweeping pieces of anti-smoking legislation the US has yet seen. It can order tobacco companies to reduce the amount of nicotine they put into cigarettes. It also signals the end of the description of some cigarettes as “low tar” or “light”.

Furthermore, Mr.Obama said; “Today, despite decades of lobbying and advertising by the tobacco industry, we passed a law to help protect the next generation of Americans from growing up with a deadly habit that so many of our generation have lived with
This lifesaving new law has the potential to put an end to Big Tobacco's targeting of nation’s children

The law followed a campaign by tobacco industry opponents in Congress for more than a decade to put cigarettes under the control of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
It allows the FDA (Food and Drug administration-USA ) to put strict limits on the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products but stops short of allowing it to ban cigarettes or their addictive ingredient nicotine.

Under the law, for the first time, the FDA will have the job of regulating tobacco, which means the agency can eventually require bigger warnings on packaging, force companies to remove harmful additives and crack down on “misleading” labels.

By October, cigarettes known primarily for their candy, spice or fruit flavors will be banned.
By January, tobacco companies will have to give the FDA a list of each product’s ingredients and additives, nicotine content and health information.
By April, the FDA will issue regulations banning tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting or entertainment events using brand names and prohibiting companies from selling or giving away clothing with brand names or logos.
By July 2011, warning labels on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products will have been enhanced, with taking up the top portion of each package

Washington’s battle with tobacco regulations stretches back decades. In the 1980’s, smoking on domestic flights was banned, and in the 1990s, restrictions on smoking in federal buildings passed. States also fought the companies, winning what was known as the Master Settlement Agreement in the late 1990s, which required tobacco companies to pay more than $200 billion over three decades to compensate for tobacco-related costs to Medicaid.
Mr. Obama said during those fights tobacco companies “spent millions upon millions” on lobbyists to walk the halls of Congress trying to block legislation, and he said that’s why Monday’s law was so remarkable.

“Today, change has come to Washington, “ Obama said. ‘Our journey for change is far from over, but with the package- passage of the kids tobacco legislation that I’m talking about to sign, we’re taking another big and very important step, a step that will save lives and dollars.