Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined health care advocates at City Hall today to defend a law passed last year that bans the sale of most forms of flavored tobacco product. In December, the city was hit with a lawsuit from a coalition of smokeless tobacco companies, claiming that "the FDA is the only agency with the right combination of scientific expertise, regulatory experience and public-health mission to oversee these [tobacco] products effectively." The lawsuit also argues that the NYC law violates federal law, which "does not permit a municipality to impose such sweeping regulation of tobacco products."
Today Quinn and anti-smoking advocates hit back, and the Speaker told reporters, "What we did legally right, but, more importantly, it was morally right, and we are not going to let this lawsuit threaten us. Tobacco yet again has shown itself to be nothing but greedy and only interested in hurting the public health of New Yorkers." Flavored tobacco, which is sold in such varieties as cookie dough, grape, and lemon-lime, is used by tobacco companies as a gateway to lure children, officials contend. The ban also includes cigars and smokeless tobacco, because a study [pdf] found that teen use of cigars and cigarillos has almost tripled in recent years.
