Dioxin Deniers at the FDA

The FDA will ignore pesticides, chlorine, dioxins, radiation and other industrial parts of typical cigarettes in its new Act. This Act, supposedly against the cigarette industry, is entirely in support of that industry, even to the point of assisting it to evade legal consequences.

Pesticides? What Pesticides ??

The FDA is now empowered by Congress to "regulate" "tobacco". One may post Public Comments on this before September 29. Below are links to the comment site and to see the Act itself. It's called the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act". It's not that long.

For the sake of the broad Cigarette Industry "Family" (including ingredients suppliers, etc.) this Act will ignore easily the far and away most health-damaging industrial elements in cigarettes and cigarette smoke, and even anywhere in the world.
Do not think of this as being about "smoking", pro or con. It is about industrial evasion of exposure, prevention of profit losses, evasion of civil and criminal consequences, and widespread misuse of public office...including in health agencies. And, the health insurers that invest so heavily in cigarette makers and the rest must be obliged to face the consequences as well. This relates significantly to the push for Single Payer. We do not want cigarette-investing insurers administering our health care.

Though this Act is painted as being wholesome and "to protect young people" is is anything but that. It is entirely a creation of the cigarette, pesticide, chlorine, pharmaceutical industries, and their insurers and investors, as a way to evade astronomical liabilities, penalties, and profit losses.
--- It forbids the FDA to address farm areas which involve some 450 tobacco pesticides and their carcinogenic residues and smoke.
--- It forbids the FDA to address cancer-causing levels of radiation from still legal use of certain phosphate fertilizers.
--- It says nothing about the dioxin in smoke from cigarettes contaminated with chlorine pesticide residues and chlorine-bleached cigarette paper.
--- It's concern for young people does not extend to these dioxins which are especially harmful to young people, fetuses, and pregnant mothers.
--- It ignores added burn accelerants which have been complicit in so many so-called "smoking related" (i.e, the victims' fault) fires.
--- It may actually reduce nicotine levels in "tobacco" products thus doing just what cigarette makers have done for so long to prompt more and deeper smoking, more exposures to the industrial carcinogens and toxins--and more sales and sin taxes.
--- It ignores that any number of low-end cigarettes may legally contain no tobacco at all (unless they say they do). With no words about these things, and with focus only on "tobacco" (w/out qualification for adulterants or not), apparently the fake tobacco products (as described in US Patent Office filings) are exempt from regulation.

[ References at fauxbacco.blogspot.com ]

Here is where to file comments electronically: It only allows a relatively short comment, but one can attach bigger files. Deadline Sept 29,Tuesday.
www.regulations.gov

And/or--- www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html

To see the act: Link from here...: www.fda.gov/TobaccoProduts/NewsEvents/ucm182982.htm
...Takes you to here: The official signed Act, apparently:
www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/NewsEvents/ucm182982.htm

Environmental, health, and pesticide activists, say, can scroll down and find these
following excerpts where we see that the pesticides and other "farm" matters will be left to the US Dept of Agriculture- --which has already approved of those deadly substances for decades. It's as if Agent Orange and Times Beach etc have been erased from the history books. This act needs more than comments; it needs to be repealed. If one misses the September comment deadline, Congress members who voted for this Pesticide and Dioxin Protection Act need to hear as many constituent comments, and demands, as possible.

The Act (Sec. 4-b) says: " AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES- The provisions of this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) which authorize the Secretary to take certain actions with regard to tobacco and tobacco products shall not be construed to affect any authority of the Secretary of Agriculture under existing law regarding the growing, cultivation, or curing of raw tobacco. “

Chapter IX; 1: “ADDITIVE- The term `additive' means any substance the intended use of which results or may reasonably be expected to result, directly or indirectly, in its becoming a component or otherwise affecting the characteristic of any tobacco product (including any substances intended for use as a flavoring, coloring or in producing, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating, packaging, transporting, or holding), except that such term does not include tobacco or a pesticide chemical residue in or on raw tobacco or a pesticide chemical.

(Remember, pesticides are excepted from “Additive” classification, but are simply ignored, as are dioxins, as is the radiation, as constituents in smoke)

Chapter IX; 15: “SMOKE CONSTITUENT- The term `smoke constituent' means any chemical or chemical compound in mainstream or sidestream tobacco smoke that either transfers from any component of the cigarette to the smoke or that is formed by the combustion or heating of tobacco, additives, or other component of the tobacco product.”

And, if it wasn’t already clear that agricultural areas---pesticides & fertilizers- --are off-limits…
LIMITATION OF AUTHORITY- `(A) IN GENERAL- The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to tobacco leaf that is not in the possession of a manufacturer of tobacco products, or to the producers of tobacco leaf, including tobacco growers, tobacco warehouses, and tobacco grower cooperatives, nor shall any employee of the Food and Drug Administration have any authority to enter onto a farm owned by a producer of tobacco leaf without the written consent of such producer.

`(B) EXCEPTION- Notwithstanding any other provision of this subparagraph, if a producer of tobacco leaf is also a tobacco product manufacturer or controlled by a tobacco product manufacturer, the producer shall be subject to this chapter in the producer's capacity as a manufacturer.

`(C) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION- Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to grant the Secretary authority to promulgate regulations on any matter that involves the production of tobacco leaf or a producer thereof, other than activities by a manufacturer affecting production.