Product regulation and product disclosure
Product regulation and product disclosure
Overview
At least half of all long-term cigarette smokers will die from a smoking related disease. Other types of tobacco product also cause death, disease and disability. Yet these lethal consumer products are regulated less stringently than foodstuffs and medication.
Tobacco smoke is a cocktail of more than 4,000 chemicals. At least 60 of these cause cancer, and many others are known to be poisonous.
The tobacco industry uses a range of additives to alter the composition of tobacco products. These can make the product more palatable to children or increase the addictiveness of the product.
For many years, the exact composition of tobacco products was kept secret. Governments have recently sought legal rights to test and regulate tobacco products, and to force tobacco companies to disclose the ingredients. In the USA, for example, the federal government has granted powers to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the composition of tobacco products, such as imposing limits on nicotine content.
Articles 9 and 10 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control require nations that have ratified the treaty to introduce monitoring and testing of the constituents and emissions of tobacco products, and to force manufacturers to disclose product ingredients.
ASH webpage on Product Regulation and Labelling
ASH Research Report: Review of the implementation of the Tobacco Product Regulation Directive 2001/37/EC (pdf file)
Current Key Texts
Royal College of Physicians. (2007) Harm reduction in nicotine addiction. Helping people who can’t quit. London: RCP (pdf file)
Hammond D, Wiebel F, Kozlowski LT (2007) Revising the machine smoking regime for cigarette emissions: implications for tobacco control policy. Tobacco Control 16(1):8-14
Framework Convention Alliance (2007) Briefing Guidelines on Article 9 and Article 10. Geneva: FCA http://fctc.org/x/documents/Articles_9and10_Briefing_COP2_English.pdf
Gray N and Kozlowski LT (2003) More on the regulation of tobacco smoke: how we got here and where next Annals of Oncology 14:353-7
McDaniel PA, Malone RE (2005) Understanding Philip Morris's pursuit of US government regulation of tobacco.Tobacco Control 14(3):193-200
Other Seminal Texts
Royal College of Physicians (2000) Nicotine Addiction in Britain. London: RCP
Useful websites
Department of Health Product Regulation Policy
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/policyandguidance/HealthandSocialCareTopics/tobacco/DH_4083845
UK Government site with links to relevant legislation.
European Commission Tobacco Control Policy
European Commission website, with links to documents about the current regulatory requirements for tobacco products.
WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg)
World Health Organisation website, outlining the work of the international body advising WHO on tobacco product regulation.
Further information
In the EU, some regulations are already in place. The 2001 Tobacco Product Regulation Directive imposes maximum yields for cigarette emissions and disclosure of ingredients. However, it does not fully meet the requirements of the FCTC and shows the need for an internationally agreed standard for measuring tobacco emissions and ingredients.
This is a rapidly developing and highly technical area. The difficulties in establishing the public health benefit of the measures show that making product regulation laws work can be very challenging.
In an influential 2000 report, the Health Select Committee of MPs called for the establishment of a UK Tobacco Regulatory Authority.
