All tobacco products were placed under the regulatory powers of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday. The United States House of Representatives voted 326 to 102 against the power of the tobacco industry regarding any power of decision these industries might have.

The FDA is now responsible to decide whether to ban marketing of cigarettes to children, require disclosure of tobacco ingredients and mandate larger, more specific health warnings. The Agency may also ask the tobacco companies to reduce or eliminate any kind of harmful ingredients or even flavored cigarettes such as clove or vanilla cigarettes.

The bill currently has strong support in the Senate but there are indications the current administration will oppose the bill if it reaches the White House. However, President George W. Bush is likely to veto the legislation if it is approved by the Senate. A similar bill was approved by the Senate in 2004 but did not pass in the House of Representatives.

The only cigarette maker which supports this measure is Philip Morris U.S.A., the largest cigarette maker in the U.S.A. The decision was opposed by the rest of the tobacco industry.

Among other regulations, the bill allows the FDA to reduce the content of nicotine to levels that don’t cause addiction, the elimination or at least the reduction of any other harmful ingredients that may be found in cigarettes other than nicotine. The current small printed messages will be replaced by graphic images including mouth growths and cancerous lung tumors. Cigarette advertisements on the streets will be black and white only, in order to minimize their visual impact.

The White House said in a statement that "in seeking to limit the harm imposed by tobacco on the American public, the bill will unfortunately undermine one of the nation's premier public health and regulatory institutions and potentially lead the public to mistakenly conclude some tobacco products are safe."