| dc.description.abstract | At the beginning of the 20th century, technological innovations in the ability to mass-produce rolled cigarettes resulted in the creation of a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States. As the popularity of combustible tobacco products grew exponentially, scientific research on their potential harmful effects began being made public. By the 1960s, the research was brought into the public eye by the federal government’s Surgeon General Advisory Committee. Although there were countless conclusive studies and organizational warnings, the tobacco companies that led the industry acted practically uncontrolled for the better part of a century. With minimal regulation by Congress, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) attempted to intervene in 1996 with the intention of regulating the industry and ultimately improving the welfare of the American population. The Supreme Court, however, denied the FDA the ability to implement advertising regulations that would have strongly limited the influence the tobacco industry had over the population. The reasons for denial are not that the proposed regulations were unconstitutional, but that the regulations came from the wrong branch of the federal government. As a result of this controversial Supreme Court ruling in 2000, the tobacco industry was able to continue its successful and manipulative tactics until Congressional legislation granted the FDA authority to regulate the industry in 2009. Once granted authority, the FDA implemented guidelines that have directly contributed to the lowest cigarette consumption rates since the 1920s. Although the federal government is now better handling the tobacco epidemic, conflicting precedents between branches were taken advantage of by big tobacco and were the direct cause for the prolongment of this national threat to public health. | en_US |
