Industry Calls Tobacco Rules ‘Power Grab’ Lawyers Deliver 47,000 Pages Of Documents In Fight With Fda

The five largest tobacco companies accused the government Tuesday of an “illegal power grab” by trying to regulate cigarettes with rules they said will cost $1 billion a year - paid mostly by retailers and advertising companies.

The cigarette makers submitted 2,000 pages of arguments - and an additional 45,000 pages of supporting research - to the Food and Drug Administration Tuesday, the deadline for public comment on the FDA’s plan to curb teenage smoking.

Joining the companies Tuesday were 32 senators, led by Sens. Wendell Ford, D-Ky., and Jesse Helms, R-N.C. “Congress has not given FDA … any authority to regulate tobacco,” the senators wrote in a letter delivered to FDA late Tuesday.

But parents and children opposed to smoking were busy delivering last-minute pleas to the FDA too.

“We are amazed that people are so blind to see how easy it is for little kids to get cigarettes,” said Morgan Lesko, 13.

And the attorneys general of 25 states said they can’t keep teens from smoking without federal help. “Advertisements that encourage teen smoking undermine the laws and policies of our states,” Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal wrote the FDA.

The FDA wants to regulate cigarettes and snuff as medical devices that are intended to deliver an addictive drug - nicotine.

The rules include strong restrictions to limit cigarettes’ appeal to young people through sexy ads and the popular Joe Camel cartoon character, as well as a ban on vendingmachine cigarette sales and a requirement that cigarette companies pay $150 million a year educating teenagers on tobacco’s hazards.