FDA Should be Allowed to Regulate the Tobacco Industry - Coursework Example

FDA Should be Allowed to Regulate the Tobacco Industry U.S.A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is an agency which centers its purpose in regulatory, scientific and Public health and it monitors the accounting for every 25 cents of a U.S dollar used by consumers. It has a jurisdiction umbrella covering a wide range of food products (with the exception of poultry and meat), biological therapeutic agents, animal and human medicine, medical devices and so on. The agency was a U.S Department of Agriculture single chemist in 1862 and by 2001 it employed about 9,100 workers with a budget of about 1.3 Billion US dollars. Its employees comprise of pharmacologists, pharmacists, chemists, physicians, layers, veterinarians, microbiologists, among others. (Swann, 1998) This is a study aimed at answering the question, “Should or should not FDA be allowed to regulate the industry of tobacco?” Firstly, the answer from which the paper will draw its points is that FDA should be allowed to regulate the industry of tobacco. In the year 2000, the supreme court of U.S.A ruled that FDA has limited authority to regulate tobacco use. Thus, FDA doesn’t maintain anymore the children and tobacco part of their website. (FDA, 2000). But FDA’s mission stipulates very well that its responsibility to protect the health of the public through the ensuring of efficiency, security and safety of veterinary and human drugs, medical devices, biological products, US’s food supply, products that emit radiation and cosmetics. Thus, tobacco can be put under biological products. For instance, WHO defines tobacco products as those made of the tobacco leaf as the raw material, (either partially or their entirety). The intended purpose of these products is to suck, smoke, snuff or chew. Further, WHO cites various risks emanating from tobacco use like chronic diseases associated. Examples are; lung diseases, cancer as well as cardiovascular diseases. (WHO, 2009) FDA’s idea was based on smokeless products of tobacco and cigarettes which it defines as delivery devices of nicotine. Theirs was not a baseless assertion, but was lifted from several findings: (a) That effects of the use of nicotine and which are known by manufacturers of these products are addiction as well as other pharmacological impacts to consumers, (b) That these consumers utilize products made of tobacco to sustain their addiction, for weight loss and for mood –altering effect, (c) That the tobacco products manufacturers are aware that nicotine has effects that are pharmacological, (d) These manufacturers of tobacco products design them so as to provide to consumers with a nicotine dose, (e) Therefore, the consequence is that consumers continue utilizing smokeless tobacco and cigarettes to ensure sustainable of the nicotine addiction. The target of the campaign was especially to limit access to tobacco products by minors and also ban the advertising of cigarettes and the promotion aimed at adolescents. FDA also wanted tobacco manufacturers to be stopped from sponsoring sporting events and events of entertainment. (Stratton, 2001, p 127) Some merchants are notoriously known for selling tobacco products to minors. Sales laws in U.S.A are too much ignored even if they have been in the books for a while. However, it’s not a matter of ignoring a known fact on the part of merchants, but one of ignorance. Many of them aren’t aware of the prohibition. Efforts like those of FDA show that particular intervention on youth accessibility to tobacco products can do away with availability of tobacco commercially among minors. (Owing, 2005, p79) Further, in US today, advertisements for cigarettes are all over. A vast number of the US population is now addicted to cigarette smoking and they continue to ignore the dangers and the health issues related to tobacco smoking. According to Brown smoking of a10-pack cigarettes daily may cut a whole month from a person’s lifespan. He says this is a fact as per the findings of an organization’s research in its quest to study the effects of smoking tobacco. The research also found out that smoking has a negative impact especially on a person’s lungs and brain. The damages associated to smoking of tobacco to the lungs are; chronic predicaments like bronchitis and asthma, impotency due to harming of the system of reproduction, lung failure and coarse voice due to windpipe damage. Also it puts at risk the people who are not primarily smokers. This is called secondary smoking and it has been a leading course of about 10% of the ill effects associated with smoking. (Brown, 2008) The institute cancer says that tobacco smoking is associated with various cancerous diseases. These may include; chronic diseases of the lung, cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer. The statistics of 2007, according to their website, show that smoking of tobacco is a very big predicament in the US, which calls for regulation. Cigarette smoking is a leading cause of deaths in the US, yet it’s a preventable cause. It’s estimated that around 438,000 people die annually in the U.S.A due to tobacco smoking ill effects. Further more, secondary smoking leads to about 38,000 people’s demise per year in the United States. Lung cancer, which is one of the cancerous diseases highly associated with tobacco smoking, is the leading of all cancer deaths in US’s men and women. About 90% lung cancer deaths occur in males while in females it’s estimated that 80% lung cancer deaths result from smoking. Among cancerous diseases that are also attributed to tobacco smoking are the cancers of pancreas, mouth, throat, bladder, kidney as well as cervix. Also the population indulging in smoking is likely to have a heart attack, with a likelihood of six times more while compared with people who don’t smoke. The risk suffering of a heart attack also rises with the level of smoking. Despite there dangers involved, in the U.S.A, around 19.8% adults were tobacco smokers in the year 2007. U.S.A’s problem of smoking doesn’t end with adult tobacco smoking, but affects young people as well. By the term young people here put in mind the minors who smoke. About 23% of students in high school smoke and around 8% of students in the middle school also smoke and are current tobacco smokers in U.S.A (National Cancer Institute, 2007) While concluding, from these findings thus, FDA should be allowed to intervene in the tobacco industry. As a matter of fact intervention should not only focus on minors’ smoking of tobacco but also smoking in the whole population entirely. This is the only way the country can do away with the detrimental issues brought up by smoking like deaths, diseases and the high cost of health care. Work Cited: Brown J. Why You Should Quit Smoking Now. 2008. Retrieved February 25, 2009 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/975354/why_you_should_quit_smoking_now.html?cat= 5 FDA, FDA and Tobacco Regulation. 2000. Retrieved February 25, 2009 http://www.fda.gov/opacom/campaigns/tobacco/default.htm National cancer institute. Tobacco Facts. 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2009 http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/smoking Owing, J.H. Focus on Smoking and Health Research. Nova Publishers, 2005. p 79. Stratton, K.R. Clearing the Smoke: Assessing the Science Base for Tobacco Harm Reduction. National. Academies Press, 2001. p 127. Swann, J.P. History of the FDA.1998. Retrieved February 25, 2009 http://www.fda.gov/search.html WHO. Tobacco. 2009. 2000. Retrieved February 25, 2009 http://www.who.int/topics/tobacco/en/ Read More