Tobacco Documents Online

Opening Statement - H.R. 5041 Ingredients Mr. Chairman, I would like to make a brief statement in connection with a particular feature of your bill that troubles me and that I believe is unjustified. The bill would require blanket disclosure of tobacco ingredients on the label of each tobacco product. This requirement is inconsistent with current law andwould compel disclosure of valuable trade secret information. Complete ingredient disclosure of this kind is not currently required for food, drugs or any similar consumer product. Under the Comprehensive Smoking Education Act, enacted in 1984, cigarette manufacturers are required to provide the Secretary of Health and Human Services on an annual basis "a list of the ingredients added to tobacco in the manufacture of cigarettes." Congress considered the dis- closure of cigarette ingredient information on this basis to be adequate to permit the federal government to make a full scientific evaluation of the ingredients added to cigarettes. In 1984, Congress considered and rejected public disclosuie of cigarette ingredient information. I believe that was a proper decision and remains so today. Cigarette

- 2 - manufacturers, like food processors, use a variety of ingredients to enhance flavor and appearance and preserve shelf life, and these ingredients have long been recognized as trade secrets. For this reason, the 1984 legislation provides trade secret protection to the ingredient information supplied to the Secre- tary and treats unauthorized disclosure of such information as a crime. I do not believe that anything has changed that would justify the public disclosure of this information and the substantial commercial harm that would result from such disclosure. The proposed blanket ingredient disclosure require- ment for tobacco products goes far beyond the ingredient label- ing presently required for food, cosmetics, drugs and other consumer products, and thus would treat tobacco products un- fairly. Based on strong trade secret concerns, Congress has explicitly exempted flavorings, colorings and spices from disclosure on food product labels, and incidental additives and processing aids are also exempt from disclosure. There are similar exemptions for cosmetics,, drugs and other consumer products. The vast majority of tobacco ingredients would be exempt from disclosure under these provisions. This bill would impose ingredient labeling require- ments for tobacco products that would be fundamentally

3 different from the labeling requirements applicable to foods, cosmetics and drugs under existing law. I do not believe that this discriminatory treatment is justified. There is a specific tobacco ingredient reporting mechanism under present law, and I am aware of no reason why we should abandon that system, which was carefully designed in 1984. We should not confuse our concern for ingredient safety with a heedless requirement for blanket disclosure of proprietary information.