Providing For Consideration Of Senate Amendment To H.R. 1256, Family Smoking Prevention And Tobacco Control Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 532 provides for consideration of the Senate amendment to H.R. 1256, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule, House Resolution 532, and the underlying bill, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. I thank Chairman Waxman and my colleagues who serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee for their leadership in this bipartisan effort.

This legislation, which passed the House by a margin of more than three to one last July and again passed the House by a vote of 298-112 this past April will finally give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the advertising, marketing and manufacturing of tobacco products, and it will also allow them to take additional critical steps to protect the public health. Putting a stop to the tobacco industry from designing products that entice young people and developing programs to help adult smokers quit is the first step in prevention.

Tobacco is currently the number one cause of preventable death in America. It is responsible for about one in five deaths annually, or 443,000 deaths per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Smoking-related deaths account for more deaths than AIDS, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, homicide, suicide, motor vehicle crashes and fires combined. Approximately 8.6 million Americans also suffer from chronic illnesses that are related to smoking.

And yet every day, more than 3,500 youth try a cigarette for the first time and another 1,000 will become new, regular, daily smokers. One-third of these youth will eventually die prematurely as a result. America's youth face intense pressure every day from friends, fancy advertisements, and irresponsible adults to make bad decisions that will affect their long-term health and their families.

A 2006 study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 90 percent of all adult smokers began while they were in their teens or earlier, and two-thirds of adult smokers became regular daily smokers before they reached the age of 19. A shocking number of American children are at least casual smokers before they can even drive a car.

As a cosponsor of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, I am strongly committed to seeing this figure drastically reduced, and this bill is an important step. Congress must work to help make our children's lives safer and their daily choices easier.

The history of low tar cigarettes illustrates the grave danger to public health caused by fooling consumers by making false and unsubstantiated claims that one kind of cigarette is substantially safer than another.

Millions of Americans switched to low tar cigarettes, believing they were reducing their risk of lung cancer. Many were convinced to switch instead of quit. It wasn't until decades later that we learned through the deaths of those smoking low tar cigarettes that low tar cigarettes were just as dangerous as full tar cigarettes.

Mr. Speaker, as you may recall during the last debate, I spoke of my fellow Coloradan, David Hughes, who as a teenager began smoking and then died last year at the age of 52. I had the chance to speak to his widow.

In 2002, after his first cancer diagnosis, throat cancer, he immediately quit smoking and became one of Colorado's fiercest anti-smoking advocates. His optimism and strength never went unnoticed as he volunteered for Smoke-Free Loveland. His mission was to prevent others from dying from cancer due to smoking, prevent others from making mistakes, prevent others from making the wrong choices that ultimately cost him his life.

David and so many others of our friends, our brothers, our sisters, our cousins, our relatives personify the humanity of tobacco addiction, and this is why we must ensure that protections are put in place and this bill is passed and sent to President Obama so that we can fulfill David's mission and honor the way that so many others have lived and died.

Under this legislation, by empowering the FDA to regulate tobacco products, we will not have to wait until the deaths of millions of more Americans to learn whether a so-called safer cigarette is really what it claims to be. The bottom line: we have an interest in making sure our constituents know the facts, all of them, before making potentially deadly choices.

America must also be made aware of the dramatic health risks associated with smokeless tobacco. Many still believe that chewing tobacco and snuff are safe alternatives to smoking cigarettes.

This bill will require warning labels that indicate that smokeless tobacco causes mouth and gum cancer, serious oral diseases and tooth loss.

A study by Brown University reveals that just a few weeks of chewing tobacco can develop leukoplakia of the cheeks and gums, which is the formation of leathery patches of diseased tissue on those parts of the mouth. The most shocking figure is that one in 20 of these cases of leukoplakia develop into oral cancer.

The American Dental Association, who strongly supports this legislation, calls tobacco use the number one cause of preventable disease in the United States. It should be a no-brainer to responsibly regulate such a dangerous product.

I also want to stress that the bill fully funds FDA tobacco activity through user fees on tobacco product manufacturers. All tobacco product-related FDA costs are allocated among the manufacturers of cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, and smokeless tobacco products that are sold in the United States based on the manufacturer's respective share of the United States market.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates if this bill is passed, we will reduce youth smoking by 11 percent over the next decade and adult smoking by 2 percent, a small step in the right direction; but there is much more work ahead of us.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, currently a head of lettuce receives more regulation than tobacco products. I would simply ask: Which is more dangerous to the American people? I would like to quote from The New York Times today, which endorsed, through an editorial, this bill, and it has been supported in the past as well.

``It has now been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that cigarette makers have spent decades making false statements, suppressing evidence of harm, and manipulating the design of cigarettes to increase their addictiveness. Federal regulators should be able to stop many of these abuses--and we hope help prevent more Americans from losing their lives to smoking.''

This bill is the first step.

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Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, this bill is not a hostile trade action. Every sovereign State, every country has the full ability to regulate public health issues. Tobacco is a killer: 443,000 deaths per year. Smoking-related deaths, as I mentioned earlier, are more than the deaths caused by AIDS, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, homicide, suicide, motor vehicle crashes, and fires combined. It is a matter of national sovereignty, a concept that I know the gentlewoman from North Carolina is also a strong supporter of, that countries have the ability, in fact a duty, to regulate public health issues.

Madam Speaker, this bill specifically achieves critical public health goals. This legislation would ensure that tobacco products are not advertised or sold to children. And as I mentioned, 90 percent of adult smokers start before the age of 19.

Addiction to tobacco begins almost universally in childhood and adolescence. Tobacco companies have long taken advantage of this vulnerability by promoting their products through cartoon advertisements, free, tobacco-themed merchandise that appeals to kids, and sponsorships of sports and entertainment events.

By reinstating the FDA's 1996 rule, we will be able to ban all outdoor tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds. Again, common sense. We will ban free giveaways of any nontobacco items with the purchase of a tobacco product that appeals to children; we restrict vending machines and self-service displays to adult-only facilities; and require retailers to verify age for all over-the-counter sales and provide for Federal enforcement and penalties for retailers who sell to minors.

Barring the sale of certain flavored tobacco products, such as fruits and chocolate, will protect the health of children who are lured to smoking by these candy-like flavors with little, if any, impact on adult enjoyment of tobacco.

The opponents of this legislation often cite the American value of individual or personal responsibility. Certainly informed adults are responsible for making their own choices and dealing with the consequences, including the choice of whether to smoke. Where we differ is our treatment of the fact that 90 percent of the Americans who smoke began as teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17. Opponents ask kids to make grave, health-related choices with incomplete information and hold those kids responsible for childhood mistakes with their lives. When 80 percent of kids smoke the most heavily advertised brands, it's easy to infer the influence of advertising on children.

Big Tobacco claims they don't market to kids. Nevertheless, they do a remarkably and suspiciously good job of getting kids to use their products. This has to change.

This legislation will also require that tobacco products marketed as safer and claims to be safer are in fact demonstrated to be safer by scientific proof. No more will consumers be duped into believing there is such a thing as healthy cigarettes, light or low tar. By imposing scientifically backed, new labeling requirements for such products, this bill will ensure that tobacco consumers not only receive accurate information about what is in such products, but also are protected from poisonous substances that are injurious to health.

Madam Speaker, I would like to inquire as to how much time remains.

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