| Companies would be required to reveal ingredients in buy cigarettes online and other products Ч certainly a step ahead of the current situation, where consumers and government scientists are in the dark. * The government would require bigger cigarette warning labels, ban the use of such labels as УlightФ and Уlow-tar,Ф and prohibit advertising and marketing aimed at kids. The measure is far from perfect. The FDA has stumbled on regulating various products. It is incongruous, as some critics argue, for a health agency to regulate a product that is inherently deadly. Congress should be careful not to trample legitimate commercial speech rights. ItТs also worrisome that the nationТs No. 1 cigarette-maker, Philip Morris, so adept at exploiting federal law, favors the measure. Yet, the alternative is doing nothing Ч leaving a rapacious industry free to deceive the public. FDA authority would give consumers a fighting chance to learn the facts and make more informed decisions about whether to use tobacco products. If a spinach leaf is worthy of government regulation, surely a tobacco leaf deserves at least as much scrutiny. |
