[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 105 (Thursday, July 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1623]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INTRODUCTION OF THE CIGARS ARE NO SAFE ALTERNATIVE ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 21, 1999

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Cigars Are No 
Safe Alternative Act of 1999, legislation which is similar to a bill I 
introduced during the 105th Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for 
the report it is releasing today which reveals dramatic increases in 
sales, advertising, marketing and promotion of cigars in 1996 and 1997. 
The FTC Report confirms my worst suspicions that despite serious and 
deadly health risks, cigar use is up dramatically in the United States 
over the last five years. Cigar consumption has skyrocketed by 57% from 
1993 to 1998. Advertising and marketing budgets grew by 32% over the 
two years studied--and every expenditure category saw a substantial 
increase--newspaper advertising grew by a whopping 254%. This comes on 
top of the February 1999 report by the Inspector General of the 
Department of Health and Human Services that, ``cigars are an emerging 
public health risk.''
  It can not be put more plainly: Cigars are not a safe alternative to 
cigarettes and it's time to clear the smoky haze regarding this deadly 
product. The legislation I am introducing today, the Cigars Are No Safe 
Alternative Act of 1999, will prohibit the sale and distribution of 
cigars to any individual who is under the age of 18. It will impose 
restrictions on the sale and advertising of cigars directed at youth, 
and eliminate cigar advertising on electronic media. It will encourage 
cigar manufacturers to end the practice of paying for, or participating 
in cigar product placements in movies and on television where a 
substantial segment of the viewing audience is under the age of 18 by 
requiring them to report on each such payment as it occurs. And it will 
direct the FTC to require warning labels on cigars to warn cigar users 
about the health risks presented by cigars.
  The CANSA Act will also require the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services (HHS) to conduct a study on the health effects of occasional 
cigar smoking, nicotine dependence among cigar smokers, biological 
uptake of carcinogenic constituents of cigars, and environmental cigar 
smoke exposure. It will further require the Federal Trade Commission 
(FTC) to report to Congress on the sales, marketing, and advertising 
practices associated with cigars--essentially updates to the report the 
FTC released today. And finally, the Secretary of HHS, acting in 
cooperation with the FDA, the FTC, and the Department of Treasury, will 
be required to monitor trends in youth access to, and use of, cigars 
and notify Congress of the results.
  Cigar regulations are the orphan of our government's tobacco control 
policy. And the trends on sales and marketing are getting worse, not 
better. The dangers associated with cigars must be exposed just as 
intensely as those associated with cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. 
Cigars should not be glamorized, they should be recognized as deadly 
health threats.
  Mr. Speaker, I am particularly concerned that among adolescents, 
cigars are being perceived as more glamorous and less dangerous than 
cigarettes. A 1997 CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey revealed that over 30 
percent of high school boys and over 10 percent of high school girls 
had smoked a cigar in the month before the survey was done. Those 
numbers are very troubling, and I am hopeful that the legislation I am 
filing today will drive home the point that cigars are not a safe 
alternative to cigarettes, period.
  Cigars emit greater amounts of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide, 
and substantially higher amounts of ammonia and a number of other 
cancer causing agents than cigarettes emit.
  Congress must apply the same standard to cigars as it does to 
cigarettes with respect to youth access and marketing and advertising 
restrictions, and ensure that teenagers are not seduced by the cigar 
industry's slick and sophisticated marketing strategy--through 
magazines like ``Cigar Aficionado'' and others.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Cigars Are No Safe 
Alternative Act of 1999.

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