FDA postpones plan to regulate cigarettes:

It now appears that the US FDA's plan to regulate cigarettes as "controlled devices" will be delayed - at least until President Clinton is certain he can win the tobacco-growing states in the next election. Clinica's Washington correspondent Duffy Miller notes that whenever the final rule is published, it should alert medical device manufacturers to the extent to which FDA will go when it decides to control a product. Not only does the agency intend to restrict youth-oriented advertising, marketing and event sponsorship by tobacco companies, it would also ban cigarette vending machines and limit retail displays of tobacco products.