A bill to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco still has strong support from public-health groups, but some advocates are disturbed by amendments they see as benefiting the tobacco industry, the New York Times reported July 17.

Examples include allowing cigarette makers to continue adding cloves to cigarettes, a change viewed as aiding Philip Morris, the only tobacco firm to endorse the FDA bill. Other flavorings, like strawberry, chocolate and cocoa, would be banned, but menthol would still be allowed.

"We would prefer that the bill continue to prohibit clove-flavored cigarettes, but [bill sponsor] Senator [Edward] Kennedy is trying to craft a path that can move the legislation through to final passage," said Paul G. Billings, a spokesman for the American Lung Association. Philip Morris recently began selling clove-flavored cigarettes in Indonesia. "Concerns were raised that the provision violated trade laws since it prohibited clove cigarettes, which are exclusively imported from Indonesia, but treated menthol, a domestic product, less restrictively," said Melissa Wagoner, a spokeswoman for Kennedy.

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said the change was indicative of deeper problems with the bill. "Poison peddlers shouldn't get to decide how we as responsible legislators fight the war against their deadly products," he said.

The bill has 52 sponsors in the Senate and also is expected to pass easily in the House of Representatives. However, President Bush stated opposition to an earlier version of the measure, and has not said whether he would sign the new version. Bush's FDA officials also have expressed skepticism about the plan to have the agency regulate tobacco.