Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2019
Floor Speech
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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, for his kind words about calling me a mom, as that is the greatest thrill of my life, now grandmother as well.
I very much thank the chairman, Mr. Pallone, for his leadership in bringing this legislation to the floor. It is so important for our children.
Madam Speaker, to Mr. Richard Neal, I thank him for the role that the Ways and Means Committee played in this as well. I want to acknowledge and thank Mr. Tom Suozzi for the work that he did on the tax piece in here, and also Donna Shalala, who knows so much about this subject in so many capacities that she has served our government and our children, as well as Karen Bass, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
When people ask me what are the three most important issues facing Congress, now for 30 years or so in Congress, I have always said the same thing: our children, our children, our children; their health; their education; the economic security of their families; a safe, clean environment in which they can thrive; a world at peace in which they can reach their fulfillment.
It is all about the children. It is all about their future.
Today, I rise to join my colleagues to take urgently needed action to confront the growing youth tobacco crisis, which is, in the words of the U.S. Surgeon General, an ``epidemic.''
This is legislation to protect our children, and I thank Mr. Pallone and Mr. Neal for their leadership here.
Today, corporations are waging a brazen special interest campaign to addict our children to e-cigarettes. Last year, more than 5 million middle school and high school students were using e-cigarettes, up from 3.6 million just last year, and more than 3 million more than 2 years ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Nearly 1 million children are using e-cigarettes every day.
Earlier today, we all met Abby, a high school student from Kentucky, and several other students, parents, and teachers who shared their stories. Abby spoke about how she was just a freshman--she is 15 now, but she was just a freshman when her friends offered her an e-cigarette at her first high school football game.
She quickly became addicted and started spending birthday money and babysitting cash to pay for e-cigarettes that older friends in high school would buy. She tried to quit, but headaches and other painful symptoms of withdrawal prevented her. Only when her supply was cut off was she able to stop.
Abby said that she never would have tried a traditional cigarette, which she and her peers considered ``harmful and disgusting,'' but they just did not know the facts about e-cigarettes, which Big Tobacco had designed to specifically target and addict millions of young people like her.
Youth tobacco use is a serious public health crisis that is endangering young people like Abby.
Today, I also met with the pediatrician Dr. Falusi, representing 67,000 pediatricians, members of the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is what Dr. Falusi said: ``The teenage brain is still developing, and symptoms of dependence can appear within days of first use. These products quickly deliver high levels of nicotine, so addiction can happen fast. Adolescents often have no idea how much nicotine they're getting from each hit.
``In the short term, we've seen compromised lung function and asthma exacerbations as well as seizures and respiratory distress, but we still don't know the long-term health effects of e-cigarette use. That should alarm us all.''
Dr. Falusi went on to say: ``Pediatricians have seen this addiction in our own patients. We receive frantic calls from parents whose children don't know how to stop using. We've even heard of teens who sleep with the e-cigarette under their pillow at night because they'' want to use them as soon as they wake up to vape.
We also heard from our distinguished colleague, Mr. Ruiz, who will be speaking--so I won't quote him--and Dr. Schrier, the Congresswoman from Washington State, a pediatrician, speaking on this subject.
With this bill, we are protecting the health of millions of young people who are at risk from Big Tobacco's deadly products.
Most importantly, this bill blocks the manufacture and sale of all flavored tobacco products, including flavored e-cigarettes. Studies show that 7 out of 10 users of e-cigarettes do so because they come in flavors like gummy bear and mango.
This ban also covers menthol cigarettes--which more than half of youth smokers and 7 in 10 African American youth smokers smoke.
This bill, therefore, helps ensure justice and reduces health disparities. The National Medical Association, the association for African American doctors; NAACP; National Black Nurses Association; African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council; Association of Black Cardiologists; Black Women's Health Imperative; and many other associations have put out this call for action from this Congress.
They said: ``Today, the tobacco industry is using e-cigarettes to hook a new generation with flavors like bubble gum, mint, mango--and menthol. It's a public health crisis affecting over 5.3 million kids.''
``Congress,'' it says, ``End the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes. Support H.R. 2339 to protect our kids.''
Again, that is from the NAACP, National Black Nurses Association, National Medical Association, Black Women's Health Imperative, Association of Black Cardiologists, and the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council.
Madam Speaker, they joined scores of other organizations who are representing communities of color and otherwise.
I include in the Record a flyer from the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund. Big Tobacco Has No Problem Targeting African American Communities but congress should have a problem with it
For decades, Big Tobacco has targeted African Americans with menthol cigarettes, with devastating consequences. Menthol cigarettes have addicted generations of African Americans, resulting in high death rates from lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and other smoking-related illnesses. Seven out of ten African American youth smokers smoke menthol, making them more likely to become addicted smokers.
Today, the tobacco industry is using e-cigarettes to hook a new generation with flavors like bubble gum, mint, mango--and menthol. It's a public health crisis affecting over 5.3 million kids.
Congress: End the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes. Support H.R. 2339 to protect out kids.
Paid for by Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund
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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, the bill protects our communities with other strong steps, including prohibiting companies from marketing e- cigarettes to youth under age 21. Ninety-five percent of adult smokers start before age 21, and those who do not begin smoking by their early twenties are unlikely to start.
Group after group is demanding action. More than 75 organizations-- from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the American Federation of Teachers, to the National Association of School Nurses, to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons--recently wrote: ``This legislation will address the current youth e-cigarette epidemic that is undermining the progress made in reducing youth tobacco use.''
We had all of the tobacco-free kids there lined up in their T-shirts. These little children know better than some of us in this Chamber how dangerous these e-cigarettes are to our young children, especially those in middle school who are so very young and that we see evidence of.
Now, let me just say, in our own community in San Francisco, Juul came in with a proposal, and they were selling it as if this is the way we are going to stop young children from smoking. We are going to have them smoke e-cigarettes, and we are going to do this and that. It was a total fraudulent campaign. Some of us just stepped forward and said: This is wrong.
But I wish some of you could see the ads that they sent to our homes, as if they were the saviors of children instead of the addictors of children, putting them on a path to tobacco use.
So there is a lot of money involved here from the tobacco industry, and we have to weigh the equities in favor of children and not in favor of profits for the tobacco industry for a long time to come.
Madam Speaker, I urge our colleagues to vote for this legislation. We cannot stand by while tobacco companies entice a new generation of young people into a lifetime of nicotine addiction and preventable death.
Congress must act for young people like Abby and millions of others exposed to the scourge of tobacco. I urge a strong bipartisan vote. I thank so many of our Members who have taken the lead on protecting our children, our children, our children.
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