Light up a pack of common sense February 27, 2007 After years of lollygagging by Congress, and a failed attempt by the Food and Drug Administration, momentum finally seems to be building to give the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco -- with an eye on reducing the leading cause of preventable deaths in this country. The U.S. Senate today begins hearings on the bill that could, among its provisions: • Let the FDA make sure cigarettes and smokeless tobacco are not marketed to children through cartoon characters or fruit- and candy-flavored products. • Prohibit terms such as "light" and "low tar" that suggest cigarettes aren't that bad. • Increase the size and detail in the health warnings on tobacco product labels. • Eliminate vending machines by requiring face-to-face transactions to purchase tobacco products. The FDA would also be able to order nicotine levels reduced, require companies to disclose the ingredients in their products, and ban claims that some products are less dangerous -- unless such claims can be substantiated by scientific evidence. So much of the legislation seems common sense that it's hard to believe it's even necessary -- or that it took this long even to get to hearings, especially considering that tobacco products kill almost half a million people a year and rack up $96.7 billion in health care costs. But several previous attempts at regulation have been blown back, and when the FDA tried to assert its own power in the 1990s, the cigarette industry challenged it on legal grounds and the Supreme Court agreed it would take an act of Congress. So now Congress is poised -- a companion bill awaits action in the House -- with part of the tobacco industry actually on board. Altria Group, the company known as Philip Morris before attempting an image change, is one of the leading supporters of the legislation. This is irritating Altria's competitors, who figure the industry giant -- its products already dominant among the 45 million U.S. smokers -- will remain on top if future tobacco marketing is limited. Boo hoo. The tobacco companies wouldn't be getting these restrictions if they hadn't spent $15 billion a year overhyping a product that, when used correctly, is deadly. Congress shouldn't let this momentum for action go up in smoke.