On Monday, President Barack Obama signed a monumental piece of legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented regulation over the tobacco industry.

As it currently exists, the bill was put forth, hoping the FDA will do better at deterring the youth from forming smoking habits.

The bill, although new, is leaving at least one local business questioning how it will affect them.

“It shouldn’t hurt my sales too much because most of my sales are cigars,” Marvin Mirick, owner of Indio Cigar Factory, said. “The FDA seems to really want to crack down on flavored tobacco, but they haven’t said a word about hookah tobacco, which of course is flavored tobacco. I’m curious to see what they are going to do about that.”

Also within the bill, the FDA stated they will be increasing the warning label sizes to cover 50 percent of the front and rear of the packaging, removing all remaining tobacco sponsorship from sporting and entertainment events and making sure that any outdoor advertising for tobacco is at least 1,000 feet from schools and playgrounds.

Another change soon to be enforced is tobacco companies will no longer be allowed to call cigarettes “light” or “mild.”

This gives a smoker a false reality that these cigarettes are better for a person’s health than full flavored cigarettes or that they contain less addictive additives.

“Instead you will start to see numbers instead of the word light,” said Mirick. “Like Philip Morris. They just came out with Blend 54’s and they already had Blend 27’s. It is the same cigarette, it just won’t be called a light or an ultra light or a medium and a mild.”

Mirick assures that the cigars he rolls are pure tobacco with no additives or flavoring, so it remains unfamiliar just what the future has in store for him and his business.

“It is just too early to tell anything,” Mirick said. “As far as I know cigars are in the clear, for now.”

Brad York can be reached at 581-7943 or at bayork@eiu.edu.