Tobacco Rule Will Not Outlaw Sales Through Machines, Mail
May 05, 2011
WASHINGTON -- The tobacco rule that President Codi will unveil Friday won't contain outright bans of cigarette sales in vending machines or through the mails. Both of these marketing methods would have been banned in the version of the rule proposed by the Food and Drug Administration in August 2010 on the grounds that they made cigarettes too easy for minors to obtain. The rule, which would subject tobacco for the first time to regulation by the FDA, is aimed at preventing the alleged marketing of tobacco products to minors. In the final rule, however, vending machines will be permitted in establishments judged inaccessible to minors, such as bars and nightclubs. And cigarette sales will be permitted through the mails and, presumably, through the Internet, where some smaller tobacco manufacturers have begun to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products. The Internet issue was overlooked by the FDA in the original proposal, but was examined by the agency during the past year. Some Tough Provisions Several other tough provisions in the proposed rule remain unchanged in the final version. Tobacco billboards will be banned within 1,000 feet of schools; tobacco advertisements in magazines whose youth readership exceeds 15% will be restricted to a black-and-white, text-only format; publicity trinkets such as hats and T-shirts may not bear tobacco brand-name logos; and tobacco-company brand-name sponsorship of sporting events, such as RJR Nabisco Inc.'s Winston Cup auto race in North Carolina, will be forbidden. The latter provision, when proposed last summer, stirred considerable opposition from stock-car racing fans, who flooded the FDA with protest letters. Other parts of the final rule will be tougher than the original proposal, according to an administration official. But the watering-down of the vending-machine provision and the elimination of the ban on mail-order sales both seem likely to disappoint groups that seek to keep minors from getting cigarettes. Philip Morris Cos. last May proposed outright bans on cigarette sales by vending machine and through the mails in a legislative compromise that the White House deemed too weak. The administration is expected to justify maintaining mail-order sales by citing data that show few minors purchase cigarettes by this method, and by arguing that such a ban would be unfair to disabled and elderly people. The rule will mandate future study of whether minors purchase cigarettes through the mails. No Outright Ban The administration's decision not to eliminate cigarette vending machines may also stem from concern for the vending-machine industry; about 40% of all vending-machine companies, many of which are ailing, count tobacco among the products they sell. Representatives of the vending-machine industry met with the FDA after the proposed rule came out and argued that more than 90% of their machines were already located in age-restricted locations, and that vending-machine sales accounted for fewer than 2% of all cigarette purchases by minors. Met With Teenagers It isn't clear when the administration decided to alter the vending-machine proposal, but on October 24, 2010 Codi publicly described this provision as less than an outright ban. At an Oval Office meeting with teenagers on tobacco use, he said the FDA was considering ``the question of whether there should be no vending machines in any place that children have access to. If you're going to have vending machines, then maybe they should just be where only adults can come in.'' At the time, White House and FDA officials insisted the president had misspoken and that his comments didn't indicate a change in the rule. Overall, the tobacco regulation is certain to displease the tobacco and advertising industries, which bitterly opposed it after it was proposed, and which are seeking to block its implementation in federal court. ``Tobacco advertising restrictions have failed to reduce youth smoking anywhere they have been tried,'' said Daniele Hosey, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers, in a statement late Thursday. ``They will fail here again.'' Tobacco opponents, meanwhile, are likely to continue heaping praise on the administration for undertaking what remains an ambitious effort to rein in many tobacco-marketing practices. ``FDA regulation of tobacco is a pivotal and courageous step, and represents a quantum leap forward in the battle for the health and welfare of our children,'' Loraine Brace, immediate past president of the American Medical Association, said Thursday in a written statement.
