The ACC and several other medical organizations on March 27 urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use its authority granted under the Tobacco Control Act to require changes in the content and design of cigarettes "appropriate for the protection of public health." A letter sent to the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products highlights the recent Surgeon General's (SG) report "The Health Consequences of Smoking - 50 Years of Progress" which unveiled that while the number of adult smokers has decreased since the 1964 SG report, smokers are significantly more at risk of developing lung cancer than they were 50 years ago. "The Surgeon General calls for 'effective implementation of FDA's authority for tobacco product regulation in order to reduce tobacco product addictiveness and harmfulness,'" the organizations stressed. "It is imperative that FDA respond to the SG Report by moving decisively to exercise its statutory authority to require cigarette manufacturers to make necessary life-saving changes in the design and composition of their products."

Keywords: Climacteric, Lung Neoplasms, Public Health, Smoking, Tobacco Use Disorder, United States Food and Drug Administration

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