[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 21, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           FAMILY SMOKING PREVENTION AND TOBACCO CONTROL ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                             HON. DAVID WU

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 1, 2009

  Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1256, the Family 
Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
  Statistics are handed out on this floor like candy. Because numbers 
are often passed off as nothing more than empty words, we fail to 
recognize how staggering they are. For instance, smoking-related 
diseases cause an estimated 440,000 American deaths each year. Smoking 
costs the United States over $150 billion annually in health care 
costs. And a 2004 study by the CDC's National Center for Chronic 
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion found that cigarette smoke 
contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer.
  Ninety percent of adult smokers are addicted to tobacco before they 
reach the age of 18; 50 percent before the age of 14. Currently the 
average age of initiation to tobacco is 11.
  48 million adults smoke in the U.S., which is 22.9 percent of the 
population overall, and 33 percent of youth currently smoke.
  To be quiet honest Madam Speaker, these statistics are more than 
staggering--they are atrocious.
  It was Irving Selikoff, a medical researcher who co-discovered a cure 
for tuberculosis who said, ``Statistics are real people with the tears 
wiped away.''
  Those real people are our parents and children, our family and 
friends, who suffer the consequences of addiction to tobacco. I want my 
children to grow up healthy and to make healthy decisions. To help that 
happen, H.R. 256 will put in place the proper authority for the Food 
and Drug Administration to establish regulations over tobacco products. 
We need the FDA to protect our population from the harmful effects of 
cigarettes and tobacco products by being able to provide sound, 
scientific regulations governing these products.
  Even with all the warnings, and the money spent on education 
campaigns, kids are still picking up smoking at the alarming rate of 
3,000 a day in the United States.
  The health concerns that will face these children are costly, 
painful, and deadly. But they are also ultimately preventable.
  I ask my colleagues to please pass H.R. 1256, the Family Smoking 
Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

                          ____________________