Closing In on Tobacco

The tobacco industry is facing a new round of legal and regulatory challenges in the protracted war over smoking and health. The Food and Drug Administration is asking the Supreme Court to let it regulate tobacco products, while the Justice Department is suing tobacco companies for the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses under Medicare and other federal health programs. These moves come in the wake of the tobacco industry's agreements to pay state governments $246 billion to settle similar reimbursement suits. For its part, the country's largest tobacco company, Philip Morris, is now acknowledging that smoking causes lung cancer and heart disease. But all the tobacco companies are resisting the latest govern-mental moves against the industry and defending their right to sell a “legal product” in a “responsible manner.”