Tobacco Firms Lose Bid to Scuttle Ingredients Law

The largest U.S. tobacco companies have lost a bid to strike down a Massachusetts law requiring them to disclose cigarette ingredient amounts.

The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rebuffed this week the appeal by Philip Morris Cos., RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and Lorillard Tobacco Co., finding that Massachusetts’ right to protect its citizens’ health isn’t subservient to federal regulations governing the tobacco industry.

The companies had asked the appellate court to overturn a lower court ruling that federal health and product labeling laws don’t supersede Massachusetts’ disclosure statute.

“There exists an assumption that federal law does not supersede a state’s historic police powers unless that is the clear and manifest purpose of Congress,” Circuit Judge Norman H. Stahl wrote in the ruling issued Monday.

Congress didn’t intend to preclude state consumer protection laws like Massachusetts’ when passing the Federal Circuit Labeling and Advertising Act and the Smokeless Tobacco Health Education Act, Stahl reasoned in the 82-page decision.

On Tuesday, Philip Morris executives declined to comment on the decision. Executives of the other tobacco companies weren’t available for comment.

When it takes effect Nov. 1, the Massachusetts disclosure law--the first of its kind in the nation--will require tobacco companies to hand over an annual list of cigarette ingredient amounts to state public health officials.

The list must break down things such as nicotine levels in cigarettes so that Massachusetts officials can “accurately predict nicotine intake for average consumers.”

Health officials can’t make the information public until they find that fluctuations in nicotine and other ingredient levels constitute a public health risk and until the Massachusetts attorney general’s office approves its release.