Tobacco Bill Passes House, Faces Uncertain Future

The American Lung Association is praising this week’s U.S. House passage of a bill that would tighten regulations on tobacco.It calls for new restrictions on advertising and federal penalties for selling tobacco to minors. The bill also puts further regulation of tobacco products into the hands of the Food and Drug Administration.Spokesperson Menisa Marshall with the lung association’s Kentucky chapter says current tobacco regulations are out of date.“If tobacco products were discovered today and tried to be brought on the market, anyone would naturally assume that they would have to go through the same kind of rigorous testing and approval process that any other products that are marketed and that we consume and put into our bodies, that someone would be looking at that," says Marshall.The bill will likely have a tough time clearing the Senate, and President Bush has promised to veto the measure.