If you are a smoker and also American, be aware from now. The federal government is on the verge of adopting stringent measures against the habit of tobacco smoking which results into one in five U.S. deaths and has already approved necessary legislations in this regard. One of them happens to be the decade-old legislation that cleared a House panel recently and authorizes U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the $80- billion-a-year tobacco industry. It is largely expected that the statute law may gather more support by the end of this year.

It’s the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that was passed by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in a 39-13 vote. It is to be noted that the same measure had been passed by a 3-to-1 margin in the full House of Representatives last July. What is the immediate reason behind this? Well, it’s the growing vexations regarding FDA resources and the awful absence of a prohibition on menthol-flavored cigarettes.

However, this is not any new development. On the contrary, from the 1960s, there has been a rise in consciousness of the ill-effects of smoking tobacco. This has led to the emergence of awareness campaigns across USA and series of debates among lawmakers how to manage the public health risks. What will be the effect of this bill? Bear in mind that the bill has been able to enjoy the endorsement of both President Barack Obama and industry leader Altria Group Inc. This, hence, would put a ceiling on tobacco marketing to young people and put in larger warnings to cigarette packages. In addition, it would direct FDA to keep watch over the quality of ingredients and launch of new products.

On this representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, the committee’s chairman and sponsor of the legislation for more than 10 years said, “Regulating tobacco is the single most important thing that we can do right now to curb the deadly toll of tobacco, and FDA is the right agency to do the job.”