Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Chairman Edward Kennedy’s chief deputy for health care reform, held a press conference today with Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Jack Reed (D-RI) to discuss the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Dodd was also joined by Matt Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

“Every year, 15,000 Connecticut children try cigarettes for the first time,” Dodd said.  “76,000 Connecticut children, alive today, are expected to eventually die from smoking. Tobacco companies know that if they can’t addict children, then they won’t have any customers.  It’s time for the tobacco industry to come up with a new business model – and this bill will force them to.”

This bipartisan legislation will empower the FDA to regulate tobacco products, allowing the agency to take actions that will help prevent youth smoking and reduce the toll of illness and death caused by tobacco use.  The FDA will have the authority to:

• prevent tobacco advertising which targets children,

• prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors,

• strengthen warnings on the health risks of smoking,

• help smokers overcome their addiction,

• make tobacco products less toxic and less addictive for those who continue to use them,

• prohibit unsubstantiated health claims about supposedly “reduced risk” products,

• stop the tobacco industry from misleading the public about the dangers of smoking.

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