Tobacco put on a leash

Cigarette smoking eventually kills about half of those who smoke regularly. More than 400,000 people die from smoking-related causes every year in the United States. Yet until Congress passed legislation Friday granting the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products, there were more rules on cosmetics than on cigarettes.

Going forward, things will be different. Public health will finally take precedence over the interests of the big tobacco companies. President Barack Obama called passage of the tobacco regulation bill — which won overwhelming majorities in both the Senate and House — a moment that "truly defines change in Washington." After more than a decade of effort by health advocates, the politics were finally aligned to tame Big Tobacco.

That means the lies that tobacco companies have perpetrated about the safety of their products, the manipulations of nicotine levels to increase addiction and the marketing campaigns designed to hook young smokers will no longer be tolerated.

Under the legislation, the FDA may set new standards to control the hazardous chemicals in tobacco products, including a possible reduction in nicotine content and some of the 60 carcinogens and 4,000 toxins in cigarette smoke. The FDA won't have the power to ban tobacco products, which is probably best since a new prohibitionist regime would just create a thriving black market. But it will have broad powers to protect the public health.

The new law focuses particular attention on young people. It would ban most of the special flavorings used to make tobacco products more accessible to beginning smokers — something like cigarettes with training wheels.

The marketing of cigarettes will also change. Some of the new strictures may face First Amendment challenges, and some advertising limits may go too far, such as a provision that bars the use of color in store displays. But preventing tobacco companies from using deceptive terms like "light" and "low tar" is surely constitutional.

The fight to impose regulatory controls on tobacco products has been a long, exhausting battle. It's been clear since the 1950s that there was a link between smoking and cancer, but the power of lawmakers from tobacco-growing states has always stymied reforms. This go-around, tobacco giant Philip Morris supported the legislative effort, and that might have been key to its passage. However it happened, Americans will finally have a federal watchdog looking at and controlling what the tobacco companies are up to with their deadly products.