Given how the US Supreme Court’s conservative majority is better known for limiting the authority of federal regulatory agencies than supporting them, this week’s small victory for the US Food and Drug Administration is an especially welcome one.
The justices served the nation’s interest by essentially doing nothing — declining to hear the tobacco industry’s First Amendment-based challenge to graphic health warnings on packs of cigarettes the FDA proposed more than four years ago. If anything, the victory was overdue.
Much has been written about Donald Trump’s election as a turning point in the public’s view of the proper role of government in their lives. We strongly believe at least one expectation hasn’t changed: Americans want to hear the truth. And the warnings are, if anything, overdue. They picture, for example, discolored feet with missing toes and a caption about how smoking reduces blood flow to the limbs that can lead to amputation. In another, a medical professional holds a diseased lung with a message of how smoking is linked to a potentially fatal lung disease.
A little difficult to view? Absolutely, and that’s the idea. Each year, an estimated 7,500 adult Marylanders die from tobacco-related causes even as overall tobacco use is down. Shouldn’t people be made to squirm?
Remember, secondhand smoke is a serious problem as well so the stakes are especially high. And while overall smoking rates have declined in recent years, they remain a serious challenge. The FDA hasn’t updated its warnings since 1984.
We can only hope the Silver Spring-based agency will continue to fulfill its mission to protect and promote public health by ensuring the safety of drugs, medical devices, food, cosmetics and other products.
Trump’s pick to run the FDA, Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr Marty Makary, has proven moderately controversial but mostly for his past views on COVID and the performance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Makary has indicated he believes the FDA has “lost the trust of Americans” but that could indicate a desire to regulate more not less. More concerning is whether Trump’s pick to run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will accept science-based evidence given his eccentric views on health care including his belief in a link between vaccines and autism.
Both nominees should be pleased by the Supreme Court’s judgment on cigarette warnings and should say so during confirmation hearings.
