A spokesperson for the Iowa Chapter of the American Cancer Society says her organization will push Congress to give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco as a drug. The U-S Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the F-D-A does not currently have that authority. Penny Schramm says Congress needs to revive it’s failed attempt at regulating tobacco.She says smoking is the most preventable cause of disease in the United StatesSchramm says there’s no time to wasteas for every day that Congress fails to pass the legislation, three-thousand kids will start smoking. Schramm says the Supreme Court’s decision also makes it important to use some of the state tobacco settlement money for smoking prevention.Republicans in the legislature intend to focus all the state’s anti-smoking efforts on kids and teens to keep them from taking up the habit. The state will be paid 55-million dollars by tobacco companies next year, and about one-fifth of that money will be used on anti-smoking initiatives.
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