340 



- 97 



The FDA cannot regulate cigarette products lf those products are 

 advertised and promoted for " smoking pleasure only ." but where the 

 Industry implies and suggests that certain products (i.e.: low tar and 

 nicotine cigarettes) are safer and can reduce or mitigate risks to 

 health, and that varying levels of tar and nicotine may "affect the 

 structure or functions of the body," then the FOA has both the 

 authority and the obligation to step 1n. 



In 1964, as a result of accumulated sc-entlflc and medical evidence, 

 the Surgeon General of the United States, Or. Luther Terry released a 

 landmark report Implicating cigarettes as a major cause of cancer. 

 The report was the result of an accumulation of scientific evidence of 

 the fifties and early sixties and sent shock waves not only through 

 the public, but through the tobacco industry as' well. This report, 

 and many reports since then, sent a dear message to the public; 

 cigarette smoking causes disease, those who smoke should quit, those 

 who don't smoke shouldn't start. 



In concluding that cigarettes caused disease, the scientific 

 conaunity, including the PHS determined that reduction of two 

 components of tht cigarette - tar and nicotine - might reduce some of 

 the harmful effect. Faced with the prospects of losing its smoking 

 cllentel and profits, the tobacco industry, even before the release of 

 the report, was quick to capital l2e on these findings of the Public 

 Health Service. New marketing strategies emerged from the industry 

 designed to suggest that filtering mechanisms would miraculously 



