By Todd Zwillich

WASHINGTON, Mar 27 (Reuters Health) - Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tommy Thompson said on Tuesday that he favors giving the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco products.

Speaking at an event promoting a new HHS report on women and smoking, Thompson told antismoking advocates that FDA should have the power to set rules over cigarettes, though he stopped short of claiming that his position reflects the attitude of President Bush on the issue.

"Speaking only for myself, I think tobacco should be regulated," he said. Thompson raised the issue as he and Surgeon General David Satcher were describing expanded efforts to educate women about the risks of lung cancer from smoking and to keep girls from succumbing to the urge to take up cigarettes.

"I don't see any reason why tobacco should not be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration," Thompson told reporters following the event.

Scott McClellan, the White House deputy press secretary, said that President Bush's focus on the tobacco issue was on youth smoking. "He believes that Congress should pass tough laws to keep tobacco out of the hand of kids," McClellan said. He would not comment on whether those laws should include regulation of cigarettes by the FDA.

Several bills are currently pending in Congress that would grant FDA the power to lay down rules controlling the manufacture and advertising of tobacco products. The agency has been trying to gain the authority to regulate cigarettes since 1996, when President Clinton ordered the agency to write rules aimed at curbing teen smoking.

Last March, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote overturned FDA's rules, saying that Congress never intended to give the agency the power to regulate tobacco.

One approach would grant the FDA the power to regulate nicotine as a drug and to control cigarettes as drug delivery devices. It would also set down in law current regulatory restrictions on sales of tobacco minors.

"To get a cabinet level endorsement is exciting. With this endorsement we have some momentum," Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), the bill's lead sponsor, said in an interview.

"I hope the president will back him up," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chief co-sponsor of the legislation. Both lawmakers said that they had not discussed tobacco legislation with the White House.

The lengthy HHS report brings together the huge amount of scientific data supporting tobacco's role as the culprit in 90% of lung cancer cases in women and as a major contributor to heart disease. Rates of lung cancer have risen from 5 cases per 100,000 women in 1960 to 35 per 100,000 today. Lung cancer rates in women began to surpass breast cancer rates in 1987, according to the report.

The report calls for efforts to reduce smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke among women. It does not mention tighter regulation of tobacco products by FDA as a way to monitor cigarette advertisements, marketing, or manufacturing practices.

Both Thompson and Satcher endorsed higher cigarette prices as one of several ways to discourage young people from taking up smoking. Studies have routinely shown that higher tobacco prices cause teens with limited funds to purchase fewer cigarettes.

Price increases were part of an overall state prevention effort in California that helped lower the lung cancer rate among women by 5% between 1988 and 1997 while overall national rates increased more than 13%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included in the report.

"We need to replicate this success story in every state in the nation," Satcher said.

Sec. Thompson said in an interview that the decision to increase cigarette taxes should be left up to individual states and that he would not advocate for such increases with Congress.

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