[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 114 (Tuesday, September 21, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1662]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REPLIES TO TOBACCO INDUSTRY MAILINGS

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                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 21, 2004

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, the tobacco industry distributes millions of 
coupons, surveys, and offers in the mail to its prospective customers. 
Sometimes, these customers or their loved ones write back. For years, 
these letters have been buried in secret industry files. As a result of 
tobacco litigation, they are now available to read on the internet.
  Here are a few examples:
  One New Jersey wife wrote, ``Please do not send anything about 
smoking. My husband . . . does not smoke any more. He has emphysema as 
a direct result of smoking. He is terminally ill. He will not get 
better and will eventually die from a lack of oxygen. . . . [he] is 
only 57 years old.''
  An Arizona husband wrote, ``My wife of 28 years has been diagnosed 
with terminal lung cancer, caused by use of your product. . . . She is 
unable to go to the mailbox, much less read your self-serving 
propaganda.''
  A son or daughter in New York wrote, ``This is to let you know that 
you can never get to know my father any better--he died from emphysema 
because of smoking most of his life. My mother, who passed away four 
months prior to my Dad, and never smoked, had the lungs of a smoker 
because of living with him all her life. Don't ever send literature 
like this to me again. . . . You have my permission to use this in your 
advertising program.''
  A mother in Texas wrote, ``I will be delighted to tell you about my 
daughter. . . . She lost her life to lung cancer at the age of 40. 
Caused from smoking. . . . Hope you think again before you send out 
such a letter. You don't know how you hurt someone who has lost a loved 
one. A grieving mother.''
  I urge all my colleagues to read these letters. You can find many of 
them on a new web site run by nurses called www.nightingalesnurses.org, 
and you can also search for more at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/
index.html.

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