The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched its new Centre for Tobacco Products which will oversee the implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act signed by President Obama in June 2009.
With much of the FDA’s tobacco regulatory efforts focusing on labeling, the move is almost certain to have ramifications for packagers of such products.
To implement the program, the FDA will start with $5 million from the fiscal year 2009 budget to establish the necessary administrative functions for the Centre.
As set forth in the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, funding for the Centre and other activities related to the regulation of tobacco will come from user fees paid by manufacturers and importers of tobacco products.
Lawrence Deyton, M.D. M.S.P.H., an expert on veterans’ health issues, public health, tobacco use, and a clinical professor of medicine and health policy at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, will serve as the Centre’s first director.
“We are thrilled to announce Dr. Deyton’s appointment as director of the Centre for Tobacco Products and look forward to him joining the agency,” says FDA Commissioner Margaret A Hamburg, MD.
“He is the rare combination of public health expert, administrative leader, scientist, and clinician.”
Before coming to the FDA, Deyton was Chief Public Health and Environmental Hazards Officer for the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
His responsibilities there included oversight of the VA’s public health programs including tobacco use, the health of women veterans, the long-term health consequences of military service, and the VA’s emergency preparation and response.
The FDA’s Centre for Tobacco Products is located on the FDA’s White Oak Campus in Silver Spring Md.
Source Packaging Digest
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