Sunday, August 20, 2006

FDA - move over Big Pharma, here comes Big Tobacco

A federal court ruling branding cigarette makers as racketeers has rekindled calls for Congress to impose tough new restrictions on the tobacco industry.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler rebuked Big Tobacco in her ruling Thursday, saying they had conspired for decades to deceive the public about smoking's hazards and pitched their products to youngsters and lied about it.

Kessler said she could not require the industry to pay for a multibillion dollar quit-smoking campaign, citing an interim ruling, but she suggested federal lawmakers could do more to stop the industry from addicting new generations of smokers.

Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., predicted Kessler's ruling would help boost the chances for bringing the loosely regulated tobacco industry under the control of the FDA.

AP

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