WASHINGTON – The American Lung Association’s “State of Tobacco Control 2014” issues a call to action for U.S. policymakers to “reverse their present course and commit to eliminating tobacco-caused death and disease.”

The report tracks tobacco control policies at the federal and state level. The group says that the federal government took a few steps forward in 2013 “after a truly dismal performance” in the 2012 report.

Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the Lung Association, wrote in the Huffington Post that the Obama Administration needs to:

• Allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate all tobacco products, including cigars and electronic cigarettes.
• Remove menthol cigarettes from the marketplace.
• Increase the federal cigarette tax and tax all tobacco products at a rate equivalent to the cigarette tax rate.

“The failure of the Administration to give FDA basic authority over all tobacco products has led to the proliferation of unregulated products like little cigars and e-cigarettes,” says the group in a press release.

Meanwhile, the Lung Association says the tobacco industry continues to be “one step ahead” with the “aggressive expansion into tobacco products other than cigarettes in 2013, including smokeless tobacco, cigars and now e-cigarettes.”

“We are faced with a deep-pocketed, ever-evolving tobacco industry that’s determined to maintain its market share at the expense of our kids and current smokers,” said Harold Wimmer, American Lung Association national president and CEO. “State and federal policymakers must battle a changing Big Tobacco and step up to fund programs and enact policies proven to reduce tobacco use.”