Title: Reaffirming the comprehensive United States approach to tobacco control and encouraging the World Health Organization to embrace technological advancements to combat noncommunicable diseases.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution directs the Department of State and the Department of Health and Human Services to engage with the World Health Organization to promote tobacco control and tobacco harm reduction approaches to combat non-communicable diseases associated with cigarette smoking globally.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 564 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 564

Reaffirming the comprehensive United States approach to tobacco control 
and encouraging the World Health Organization to embrace technological 
            advancements to combat noncommunicable diseases.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 27, 2021

    Mr. Reschenthaler submitted the following resolution; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Reaffirming the comprehensive United States approach to tobacco control 
and encouraging the World Health Organization to embrace technological 
            advancements to combat noncommunicable diseases.

Whereas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
        approximately 40 million Americans smoke cigarettes on a regular basis, 
        and smoking remains one of the most preventable forms of noncommunicable 
        disease around the world;
Whereas, though the best health outcomes for current smokers result from 
        quitting nicotine altogether, the Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention estimates less than 10 percent of adult smokers will 
        successfully stop smoking cigarettes in a given year;
Whereas the bipartisan Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 
        (Public Law 111-31) provided the Food and Drug Administration authority 
        to regulate the tobacco industry and develop a pathway to bring 
        scientifically substantiated less harmful alternatives to the market for 
        adult consumers who would otherwise continue smoking cigarettes;
Whereas, in 2017, the Food and Drug Administration announced a comprehensive 
        approach to tobacco control based on cessation, prevention, and harm 
        reduction, and recognized a continuum of risk with combustible tobacco 
        products on one end of the spectrum and noncombustible products such as 
        heated tobacco, vapor, and snus on the other end;
Whereas, as part of its scientific evaluation to assess whether a product is 
        appropriate for the protection or promotion of public health, the Food 
        and Drug Administration assesses various criteria, including the 
        potential health effects, nicotine levels, flavor variants, potential 
        appeal to, and likelihood of use by youth and nonsmokers, and imposes 
        post-market surveillance requirements;
Whereas the United States approach to tobacco control requires the Food and Drug 
        Administration to evaluate all available scientific data and the Food 
        and Drug Administration process allows for all interested parties to 
        engage the agency in an open and transparent manner regarding the 
        development of such innovative products;
Whereas other governments have embraced similar approaches to tobacco harm 
        reduction, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Greece, and 
        Norway, and have provided adult consumers information about and access 
        to scientifically substantiated reduced-harm products;
Whereas the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control negotiated and implemented 
        under the auspices of the World Health Organization, includes harm 
        reduction as one of the main pillars of tobacco control;
Whereas the World Health Organization has yet to promote harm reduction, embrace 
        innovation and technological advancements, and recognize the science 
        supporting tobacco harm reduction as a means of accelerating the decline 
        of cigarette smoking and reducing noncommunicable diseases associated 
        with smoking;
Whereas the World Health Organization minimizes the Food and Drug 
        Administration's evaluation process of noncombustible nicotine-
        containing products, and in many countries the World Health Organization 
        encourages health regulators to prohibit these products from the market 
        or tax and regulate them in the same manner as cigarettes; and
Whereas the World Health Organization estimates there will be approximately 
        1,400,000,000 cigarette smokers throughout the world in 2025, and 
        efforts to reduce consumption through increased taxation or other 
        regulatory measures have demonstrated limited impact on the decline of 
        smoking prevalence: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives directs the Secretary 
of State and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to proactively 
engage the World Health Organization to promote the comprehensive 
United States approach to tobacco control, and encourage the adoption 
of tobacco harm reduction as a pragmatic means of combating 
noncommunicable diseases associated with cigarette smoking around the 
world.
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