I
104TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1853
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require the reduction
and eventual elimination of nicotine in tobacco products.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 15, 1995
Mr. MEEHAN (for himelf and Mr. HANSEN) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to
require the reduction and eventual elimination of nicotine
in tobacco products.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Freedom From Nico-
tine Addiction Act of 1995’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Tobacco use remains the largest preventable
cause of illness and premature death in the United
States, responsible for the unnecessary deaths of
more than 419,000 Americans each year.
(2) Tobacco is a uniquely harmful product in
that it kills if used as intended.
(3) The United States health care system ex-
penditures due directly to smoking totals $50 billion
a year. The United States economy loses $47 billion
a year in productivity due to smoking.
(4) The 1988 report of the United States Sur-
geon General concluded that cigarettes and other
forms of tobacco are addicting, that nicotine is the
drug in tobacco that causes addiction, and that the
pharmacologic and behavioral processes that deter-
mine tobacco addiction are similar to those that de-
termine addiction to heroin and cocaine.
(5) The 1994 report by the United States Sur-
geon General concluded that the nicotine in tobacco
products is responsible for the rapid addiction of up
to half of all children who experiment with tobacco.
(6) Among adults in the United States who
have ever smoked daily, 91 percent tried their first
cigarette and 77 percent became daily smokers be-
fore they were 20 years old.
(7) Nicotine addicts over 3,000 children each
day into an activity which eventually will kill ap-
proximately 1⁄2 of them.
(8) The current Commissioner of Food and
Drugs has labeled tobacco a pediatric disease.
(9) A senior research scientist for one of the
largest cigarette manufacturers in the United States
has observed: ‘‘The primary incentive to cigarette
smoking is the immediate salutary effect of inhaled
smoke upon body function . . . The physiological ef-
fect serves as the primary incentive; all other incen-
tives are secondary . . . Think of the cigarette pack
as a storage container for a day’s supply of nicotine
. . . Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose
unit of nicotine . . . Think of a puff of smoke as
the vehicle of nicotine.’’.
(10) The use of tobacco products continues to
be widespread, in spite of increased awareness of
their lethal nature, because nicotine which is the sin-
gle, removable substance in tobacco that causes ad-
diction in children and reinforces that addiction in
adults.
(11) Tobacco manufacturers have the capability
to remove all or virtually all of the nicotine from
their tobacco products using technology already in
existence.
(12) Nicotine destroys the freedom of millions
of children and adults in the United States to choose
whether or not to continue using tobacco products.
SEC. 3. REGULATION.
(a) DEFINITION.—Section 201 of the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321) is amended by
adding at the end the following:
‘‘(gg) The term ‘tobacco product’ means any ciga-
rette, cigar, little cigar, pipe tobacco, fine cut tobacco, or
any smokeless tobacco product.
‘‘(hh) The term ‘nicotine’ includes any substance that
has pharmacologic activity similar to nicotine.’’.
(b) REDUCTION IN NICOTINE.—Chapter V of the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is amended—
(1) in the title by adding at the end ‘‘AND TO-
BACCO PRODUCTS’’, and
(2) by adding after subchapter C the following:
‘‘SUBCHAPTER D—TOBACCO PRODUCTS
‘‘REGULATION OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS
‘‘SEC. 545. (a) It shall be unlawful to introduce or
deliver for introduction into interstate commerce any to-
bacco product that is adulterated.
‘‘(b) A tobacco product shall be considered adulter-
ated if it contains nicotine in a quantity per cigarette ex-
ceeding the following:
‘‘As of January 1, 1997, 10.00 mg. nicotine.
‘‘As of January 1, 1998, 8.00 mg. nicotine.
‘‘As of January 1, 1999, 6.00 mg. nicotine.
‘‘As of January 1, 2000, 4.00 mg. nicotine.
‘‘As of January 1, 2001, 2.00 mg. nicotine.
‘‘As of January 1, 2002, .05 mg. nicotine.
‘‘(c) The Secretary shall prescribe a reduction in the
nicotine in tobacco products other than cigarettes which
is comparable to the reduction required by subsection (b).
Such reduction shall be published in the Federal Register.
Such a tobacco product shall be considered adulterated if
it contains nicotine in a quantity exceeding the quantity
prescribed by the Secretary.’’.
(c) ENFORCEMENT.—Section 301 of the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C 331) is amended
by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(v) The introduction or delivery for introduction into
interstate commerce of an adulterated tobacco product.’’.
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