Battleground of Tobacco Regulation Remains Local
From: Convenience Store News
NATO updates Convenience Distribution Marketplace attendees.
By Melissa Kress, Convenience Store News***
“Local ordinances are probably the greatest threat to the industry,” according to Thomas Briant, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO). In fact, each year, the number of proposed ordinances and the severity of those ordinances increase, he noted.
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As Briant explained, one of the major focuses of tobacco regulation currently is a call for flavor bans. Flavored cigarettes have been banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since the early days of The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009; however, flavors have not been banned in other tobacco products (OTP) at the federal level. Notably, the FDA’s final deeming rule — which went into effect Aug. 8 — did not address flavors for other products such as electronic cigarettes and cigars. But the deeming rule is just a foundational step for future federal regulations.
