Regulations Restricting the Sale and Distribution of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco Products To Protect Children and Adolescents

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing new regulations governing the sale and distribution of nicotine-containing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to children and adolescents in order to address the serious public health problems caused by the use of and addiction to these products. The proposed rule would reduce children's and adolescents' easy access to cigarettes and smokeless tobacco as well as significantly decrease the amount of positive imagery that makes these products so appealing to them. The proposed rule would not restrict the use of tobacco products by adults. Specifically, the proposed rule would establish 18 years of age as the Federal minimum age of purchase and would prohibit cigarette vending machines, free samples, mail-order sales, and self-service displays. It would also require that retailers comply with certain conditions regarding sales of tobacco, especially verification that the purchaser is at least 18 years of age before a tobacco sale is made. Finally, the proposed rule would limit advertising and labeling to which children and adolescents are exposed to a text-only format; ban the sale or distribution of branded non-tobacco items such as hats and tee shirts; restrict sponsorship of events to the corporate name only; and require manufacturers to establish and maintain a national public education campaign aimed at children and adolescents to counter the pervasive imagery and reduce the appeal created by decades of pro- tobacco messages and thus to help reduce young people's use of tobacco products. The objective of the proposed rule is to meet the goal of the report ``Healthy People 2000'' by reducing roughly by half children's and adolescents' use of tobacco products. If this objective is not met within seven years of the date of publication of the final rule, the agency will take additional measures to help achieve the reduction in the use of tobacco products by young people. FDA is requesting comment regarding the type of additional measures that would be most effective.