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Yesterday, the landmark Tobacco Regulation Act was approved by the highest instance, namely President Barack Obama, a former chain smoker, who has been seeking to overcome the addiction. The legislation provides the American Food and Drug Administration with the power to regulate tobacco products, prohibiting flavored tobacco products (excluding menthol), demanding bigger and grievous warnings on packs and restricting tobacco advertisements. However, the legislation lacks a word regarding regulation of exported tobacco products.

When signing the bill into law, the 44th President of the United States declared that the legislation he has signed demonstrated a long-sought change in the public assumption over tobacco industry. He named the legislation a historical one, that defeated years and millions dollars spent by tobacco companies for lobbying and marketing their products and said that the legislation would essentially protect young Americans from the hazards of smoking, becoming the first generation of Americans in modern history that would not be exposed to tobacco addiction and attraction.

Under the legislation, the FDA would launch a filial regulatory agency, named Tobacco Oversee Center, entitled to control the regulation and enforcement of Tobacco legislation throughout the nation. The restrictions provided by Tobacco regulations include banning tobacco products with candy, chocolate or fruit flavorings, requiring the cigarette makers to reveal information about the composition of their products, thus, naming all the additives that were always concealed. Moreover, cigarette manufacturers would be forced to stop using such terms as “light”, “low-tar” or “mild”, since it misleads smokers to considering such products as less harmful. In addition, outdoor cigarette ads have been prohibited within 1000 feet of child-care and educational facilities like schools, universities or playgrounds. And finally, tobacco industry has been banned from sponsoring public events like entertainment or sport competitions.

The latter legislation has been praised by multiply public health organizations and anti-smoking groups, among which were American Cancer Society, Smoke-free America and other agencies.

At the same time when the Congressmen led by the president approved the historical tobacco restrictions in the United States, American cigarette companies keep captivating and invading poorer and developing countries with tobacco products. For instance, Latin American countries experience a constantly growing cigarette market, without any strict anti-smoking policies since the governments has been massively involved in manufacture and collecting revenues from cigarettes.

Despite smoking was banned throughout the Beijing Olympic Games, China remains a giant consumer of tobacco products, being as well the second largest producer of cigarettes in the world behind the United States. According to WHO report, the most smoking countries are situated in Asia - China, Yemen, Cambodia and Djibouti. Statistics shows that within the last 25 years tobacco consumption fell by 10-15% in developed nations whereas it gained almost 70 percents in underdeveloped and developing countries. According to 2008 issue of World Tobacco Atlas almost 80 percent of all tobacco consumers reside in underdeveloped countries.

Therefore, while US legislators imposed severe restrictions on tobacco industry in America, it is still not clear whether those restrictions would be spread to exported productions and prevent young people from other countries from picking up the hazardous habit.