ERLC Joins Other Faith Groups in Letter Urging Congress to Support FDA Regulation of Tobacco
- Feb 26, 2007 - comment
Dear Senator/Representative:
We are writing to you as leaders of Faith United Against Tobacco, a faith coalition comprised of clergy and lay members throughout the country, to strongly urge you to support S. 625 and H.R. 1108, the Kennedy-Cornyn and Waxman-Davis bills that would authorize the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco. We in the faith community believe that our nation’s leaders, and particularly our Members of Congress, have a moral obligation to do all they can to protect Americans, particularly children, from tobacco addiction and disease. We are united on this issue.
Granting FDA authority to regulate tobacco products would prevent tobacco companies from adding even more deadly and addictive ingredients, prohibit candy-flavored cigarettes, prevent tobacco sales to underage children and limit advertising and promotion of tobacco products that lure children into a deadly habit. We find it incredible that the FDA can ensure the safety of everyday items like macaroni and cheese, but has no authority over tobacco, a product that kills over 400,000 Americans every year. No one wants too much government regulation, but FDA authority to regulate tobacco products will simply treat tobacco manufacturers like the manufacturers of other products – it will level the playing field and assure the protection of consumers and our children.
Over the last few years, Faith United Against Tobacco has been working with the public health community to draw attention to the need for FDA oversight of tobacco products. We have spoken out on this issue because we have spent too much time burying mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers who die because they became addicted to tobacco products when they were young. We know that the tobacco companies continue to spend billions of dollars marketing their deadly products to children and far too many high school students smoke.
Moreover, the evidence about tobacco industry’s misdeeds and the harm caused by this unregulated product keeps mounting. On August 17, 2006, federal Judge Gladys Kessler found the major tobacco companies to be racketeers who have lied – and continue to lie – to the American people about the health risks of their products and their marketing to children. Then, on the heels of this court decision, a report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health found that tobacco companies have secretly and significantly increased the levels of nicotine in cigarette smoke between 1998 and 2004.
Now that strong, effective FDA legislation, S. 625 and H.R.1108, has been reintroduced, we ask that you cosponsor it and work for its speedy enactment into law during the first session of the new Congress It is time to protect our children and families.
If you have any questions or would like to reply to this request, please contact Vincent DeMarco, Coordinator for Faith United Against Tobacco at 410-591-9162.
James Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Church
Bishop Henry Williamson
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Dr. DeWitt Williams, Director, Health Ministries, North American Division,
Seventh-day Adventists
Julie Taylor, Executive Secretary for Children, Youth and Family Advocacy
Women’s Division, GBGM
United Methodist Church
Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, National Director
Islamic Society of North America
Reverend William G. Sinkford, President,
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
Manmohan Singh, General Secretary
World Sikh Council – America Region
Rabbi David Saperstein, Director and Counsel
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Reverend Deborah L. Patterson, Executive Director
International Parish Nurse Resource Center
Dr. Walter l. Parrish, II, Executive Minister
American Baptist Churches of the South
Rev. Dr. A Roy Medley, General Secretary
American Baptist Churches USA
Peggy Matteson, President
Health Ministries Association
Dr. Richard D. Land, President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention
Phil Jones, Director
Brethren Witness/Washington Office
Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory, Director, Washington Office
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Andrew Genszler, Director for Domestic Policy
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Matthew Ellis, Executive Director
National Episcopal Health Ministries
Reverend Bob Edgar, General Secretary
National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA
Reverend Ruben Cruz, Church Finance Council
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Reverend Michael H. Crosby, OFMCap., Coordinator Tobacco Program
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
Patricia G. Burkhardt, Legislative Officer
Church Women United
Barbara Baylor, M.P.H., Minister for Health and Wellness
United Church of Christ
Rev. David Adams, General Secretary
General Commission on United Methodist Men
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