Health group blasts inaction on tobacco control

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. leaders failed to take meaningful steps to reduce smoking over the past year, with a tobacco regulation bill stalling in Congress and a global treaty gathering dust, a major health group said on Tuesday.

In its annual report on U.S. tobacco control efforts, the American Lung Association criticized the Bush administration, Congress and various state governments for inaction on a range of measures to curb smoking.

The report gave federal efforts mostly failing grades.

It noted that the House of Representatives passed a bill in July that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration broad authority to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products, but the Senate did not pass it. The bill must start over in the new Congress.

The White House expressed "serious concerns" about the bill and threatened a presidential veto. Some tobacco companies opposed it, but it was supported by the largest U.S. cigarette maker, Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group Inc.

The Bush administration again did not submit an international tobacco control treaty to the Senate for ratification even though the United States previously signed the accord, the report said.

The group also said the 39-cent per pack federal cigarette tax remains too low, citing evidence that consumption of cigarettes decreases as their cost increases.

The American Lung Association also criticized federal officials for failing to require state Medicaid programs to cover smoking cessation treatments for people covered by the health insurance program for the poor and disabled.