Today, an estimated 20 percent of adults in the U.S. smoke, down from 42 percent in 1965, a year after the surgeon general's office issued its first warning.
But the industry has repeatedly dodged more stringent limits, including basic regulation of what is in tobacco products. Tobacco companies went to court in the late 1990s to block a Clinton administration bid for FDA authority over tobacco.
"If you look at a box of macaroni and cheese, you can see what kind of dye has been used. All the ingredients are scrutinized to determine whether they are dangerous to consumers' health," said Gregg Haifley, a senior lobbyist for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
"Not so tobacco. It has remained virtually the only unregulated consumable product in America." Public health advocates say that has allowed companies to advertise "light" and "mild" cigarettes as safer alternatives when, in fact, the products contain harmful additives and induce many users to intensify their smoking.
Under the legislation moving through Congress - sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats - the FDA would have the power to prohibit such claims.
The agency also would be able to ban most flavorings in tobacco products and place limits on addictive nicotine as well as other ingredients and byproducts generated when tobacco products are smoked.
Manufacturers would not be able to introduce new products unless they are reviewed by the agency and would face new regulations requiring their outdoor advertising and advertising in most retail locations be limited to black and white. Businesses catering only to adults, such as bars, would be exempted.
And the FDA would have the authority to require new warning labels on up to 50 percent of the front and rear panels of tobacco product packaging.
The bills do not permit an all-out ban on nicotine. They also exempt menthol from the flavoring ban.
Lawmakers made additional concessions to the industry by requiring the FDA to consider the economic impact of any new restrictions and giving tobacco companies nonvoting representation on a new scientific advisory panel.
Those compromises are not insubstantial, said Stanton Glantz, a longtime tobacco control advocate who heads the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Regulation at the University of California, San Francisco. "One thing one learns from dealing with tobacco companies is that the devil is in the details."
