Last week’s 79 to 17 vote enabling the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco products was a historic moment. Forty-five years after the Surgeon General Report in 1964, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives in America. Notice I said “potential to save lives" rather than “will save lives.” We will have to keep an eye on the man behind the screen to make sure the bill does what it is supposed to do.

Without good FDA follow-through the bill will do little. While a step in the right direction it has flaws that will need to be fixed as time goes on. Until we see how it’s practically applied, it’s hard to know how effective the bill will be.

You might be wondering why the passage of this act is such a big deal. I mean, after all, don’t we have smoke-free indoor air in most states now? And, haven’t we raised prices to where cigarettes are getting prohibitively expensive for smokers? And, haven’t we banned cigarette advertising on TV? The answers to these questions are Yes, Yes, Yes, as well as yes to many other important efforts to protect the health of smokers and non-smokers alike. But, what we have not been able to do is the one thing that has real potential to make a difference, and that is to regulate the PRODUCT!

This bill can drastically reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes to make them much less addictive, but nicotine cannot be eliminated entirely. It can stop the industry from labeling cigarettes light and low tar, when in fact cigarettes so labeled have NEVER had less tar or nicotine than regular cigarettes. It can further restrict the tobacco industry in their advertising strategies, which are still designed to make cigarettes sexy and sophisticated, especially to children. But, it will not do any of these things on its own. FDA regulators and administrators will have to be on their toes to keep the tobacco industry from manipulating the law to their own advantage.

One shortfall of the bill is that it provides for 3 industry representatives on the FDA tobacco advisory board. While these individuals will not have a vote, they will be able to influence decisions. And that is what the tobacco industry does the best - working behind the scenes to achieve their goals.

In the final analysis it is up to us to make sure this bill makes a difference. You can do this by paying attention to what the FDA does to act on the intent of the bill, and by keeping an eye on the man behind the screen. If we don’t, we may find our children having this same conversion forty-five years from today. And that indeed would be tragic.