March 2015
Last week, the ATS joined over 20 other medical and public health organizations in a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives opposing legislation to exempt "traditional" or hand-rolled cigars from FDA regulation. The bill, the "Traditional Cigars Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act" (H.R. 662), would permanently exempt hand-rolled and certain machine-rolled cigars from any sort of FDA regulation. Parallel legislation has been introduced in the Senate, S.441.
If enacted, this legislation would create a giant regulatory loophole for the cigar industry to exploit, including advertising to kids, growing the candy-flavored cigar market and returning to false advertising tactics such as calling products "light" or "low tar."
This legislation is exactly the same as the bills introduced during the last Congress. The ATS will continue to monitor this legislation and actively work to oppose these bills.
