[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 35 (Thursday, March 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S2440]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FDA REGULATION OF TOBACCO

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, every year, 450,000 Americans die from 
smoking-related illnesses. That means tobacco companies have to find 
450,000 new customers every year. Here is how they do it.
  There is a new ad campaign from Camel that targets young girls. This 
is part of a mailer that Camel sent to young women around the country, 
especially aimed at young women, calling Camel cigarettes ``light and 
luscious.'' You will notice the resemblance of this mailing to a 
popular perfume. This is Camel No. 9. Inside this box--this is inside 
the mailing--is something that looks like a cigarette box. These are 
not actually cigarettes. They are not allowed to do that under law. But 
if you open this, you will see Camel is offering two for one, two packs 
of cigarettes for the price of one.
  In Ohio, 20 percent or 134,000 high school students smoke, and each 
year more than 18,000 children under the age of 18 become daily 
smokers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 
almost 300,000 Ohio children under the age of 18 who start smoking now 
will die prematurely as a result. Almost 300,000 children who start 
smoking now will die prematurely as a result.
  Our Nation's youth, frankly, are almost certainly not aware of these 
staggering statistics when they try their first cigarette, but we are 
aware of it. If we are not, we should be. It is our responsibility to 
make sure our children are safe and don't fall victim to these 
unhealthy addictions--addictions with deadly outcomes. It is our 
responsibility to make sure our children are safe and don't fall victim 
to unhealthy addictions.
  FDA regulation of tobacco products, legislation introduced by Senator 
Kennedy, is not only necessary to protect our kids, it will improve the 
overall health of our Nation and save countless lives. FDA regulation 
is necessary because most cigarette manufacturers have proved time and 
again they have no desire to take the course of responsible action. 
Instead, in an act of morally reprehensible profiteering that 
contravenes a multistate tobacco agreement struck in 1998, cigarette 
manufacturers are once again using advertising campaigns to lure 
teenagers into a deadly habit.
  These unscrupulous business practices especially prey on girls in 
particular. As a father of three daughters, I take personal offense to 
this kind of advertising that glamorizes cigarettes. Their latest 
gimmick, again, as I said, is a mailing of a takeoff on a popular 
perfume. They are sending these out, I presume, to hundreds of 
thousands of young women.
  It strains the imagination that this ad campaign and these kinds of 
two-for-one coupons--it strains the imagination to think that this is 
aimed at anyone other than 15- and 16- and 17-year-old girls. These 
images make their way into millions of homes across the country through 
these mailers, and they reveal, as I said, a prize of two-for-one 
coupons, even though cigarettes are legal only for 18-year-olds and 
older. Cigarette manufacturers are literally investing in the premature 
deaths of our daughters.
  It is up to Congress to put a stop to it. Lung-related cancers are 
the fastest growing and now the leading cause of cancer death among 
women. As elected officials, we have an obligation to ensure the health 
and safety of those who sent us to the Senate. As parents, we have a 
moral imperative to ensure our children are afforded the best chance 
for a bright start. There is nothing ``light'' or ``luscious'' about 
dying from lung cancer.
  Every year, smoking costs our Nation more than $96 billion in health 
care costs. The real costs, of course, are the 450,000 lives lost every 
single year to smoking-related illnesses.
  In my home State of Ohio, health care costs directly caused by 
smoking topped $4.3 billion, $1.5 billion of which is covered by our 
State Medicaid Program--the taxpayers. This is a drain on our health 
care system. It is a drain on our local communities. It is a drain on 
our Federal and State budgets. Congress must grant, under the Kennedy 
proposal, the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products.
  We have a responsibility to our Nation to ensure that children are 
safer and they are not the victims of suggestive marketing by tobacco 
companies. Congress has debated the issue of FDA authority over tobacco 
for nearly a decade. It is time to finish the debate and take action to 
protect children, protect young women, girls, from this kind of 
advertising, from these kinds of campaigns because if we take the right 
kinds of action, it will save literally hundreds of thousands of lives.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.

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