Congressman Jim Gerlach Responds

I had somewhat good news today when a letter was received from Congressman Jim Gerlach, 6th District Pennsylvania. Hopefully, there will be progress made here. I have included the text of the letter received and the letter sent to Dr. Deyton below.

Dear Mr. Jaromnak:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about the safety of fire safe cigarettes. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

As you may know, The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which became law on June 22, 2009, gives the Food and Drug Administration new regulatory oversight over cigarettes. Specifically, it creates a Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee within the Administration to provide advice, information, and recommendations to FDA on such issues as safety, dependence, or other health effects. As such, I am sending a copy of your correspondence to Dr. Lawrence Deyton, the Chairman of this Committee, for his further review and input.

Again, thank you for contacting me with your concerns, and I will be back in touch once we get a reply from Dr. Deyton.

_____

Dr. Lawrence Deyton
Chairman
Center For Tobacco Products
Food and Drug Administration
9200 Corporate Blvd.
Rockville, MD 20850

Dear Dr. Deyton:

Attached herewith is correspondence from David Jaromnak, a constituent of mine and the Director of Citizens Against Fire Safe Cigarettes. Mr. Jaromnak is concerned with the potentially harmful effects of "fire safe" cigarettes. I hope you will take the opportunity to review his correspondence, and provide me with your thoughts on the health-related concerns he raises regarding the product.

With kind regards, I am

Sincerely,

Jim Gerlach
Member of Congress

Get the Word Out on Twitter

Communication is the key to successfully educate our government officials and agencies. In addition to traditional mail and email to your elected officials, please tweet them on twitter. You can send links to this blog and the petition site. Try also to use #cafsc in your posts so others can see your posts. When you tweet, include some of these people in the post so they are informed. You would think that if enough people keep tweeting the government, somebody will take notice. Thank you!

Tweet List

President Barack Obama @BarackObama
Senator John McCain @SenJohnMcCann
Senator Susan Collins* @senatorcollins

* Senator Collins is a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies

Petition Letters Sent

Today, we have drafted and mailed a letter and copy of the petition to the following people:

President Barack Obama
Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. (Commissioner FDA)
Governor Edward G. Rendell, Pennsylvania
Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr., Pennsylvania
Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
Congressman Jim Gerlach, 6th District, Pennsylvania

As of today over 26,000 people have signed the petition, which equates to about 50 people every single day since the petition was started in November 2008. Thank you very much for your testimonials and signatures. Since the FSC law has passed in every state, the National Government must intervene. We urge that everyone actively contact the President, and the Senators/Congressman from your state. Also please contact the FDA, as they can step in and create a regulation to ban FSC. Your emails, phone calls and letters will make a difference.