[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 19, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2141-S2142]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CHILD NICOTINE ADDICTION

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I rise today to call attention to a 
dangerous complacency that threatens the health and the lives of our 
children, and I rise today to urge our administration to take long 
overdue action to protect our children.
  Two years ago this month, the Food and Drug Administration, or the 
FDA, released a proposed tobacco deeming rule, which is a blueprint for 
a regulatory framework for e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. 
Administration officials believed and conveyed that the final rule 
would be out by the end of the summer 2015. Well, the summer of 2015 is 
now history, and soon it will be the summer of 2016, and we wait. We 
have been waiting a very long time.
  In total, it has been 7 years since the Family Smoking Prevention and 
Tobacco Control Act was passed by the Senate and the House and signed 
by President Obama. This legislation gave the Food and Drug 
Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products.
  This legislation was sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy. It was passed 
in the final months of his life. It was a tribute to his long advocacy 
for the regulatory control of tobacco--a dangerous, destructive drug 
widespread throughout America. The passage was part of his legacy. But 
now we are failing that legacy, and we are failing millions of our 
children.
  When the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed 
into law, it was heralded as a major victory, giving the FDA real power 
to crack down on the marketing of tobacco products to our children. 
After a year, there is no action--2 years, no action. That took us to 
2011--3 years, no action; 4 years, no action; 5 years, no action; 6 
years, no action; 7 years, no action. Over the course of those 7 years, 
a lot more Americans have become addicted to nicotine products.
  In 7 years, the industry has had time to develop new innovative 
products to entrap our youth, and they have utilized that time well. 
How much longer will this inaction continue while our children are 
addicted to products newly invented and aimed directly at them? Each 
passing month, thousands of children become addicted to these new 
products. Each passing month, the nicotine addiction industry becomes 
more deeply entrenched and determined to prevent the regulation that we 
authorized back in 2009. It has been said that while Nero fiddled, Rome 
burned. In this situation, while the administration has failed to act, 
millions of children have become addicted to nicotine, with profound 
consequences for their health.
  Once this rule is final, the FDA will be able to regulate new tobacco 
products in important ways, including imposing minimum age standards, 
limits on advertising, health warnings on the products, child-proof 
packaging, and requiring the registration of tobacco product 
manufacturers by the FDA and FDA approval of some novel products.
  It is time to get this done because lives are at stake. We all are 
familiar with the cycle: Tobacco use leads to tobacco addiction. 
Tobacco addiction leads to disease. Disease leads to suffering and 
often to death. In fact, tobacco use is the leading cause of 
preventable death in the United States--the leading cause. It imposes a 
terrible toll on health and lives and dollars. It affects families and 
businesses and government.
  So the best way to improve the health of Americans 10, 20, 30 years 
into the future or 40 years down the line is to stop the process by 
which this industry is targeting our youth. Here is what they know. 
They know that after the age of 21, very few people become addicted to 
nicotine. It is a product that people try in their youth, and with 
repeated use they become addicted to it and then continue, normally for 
years and years. That makes for a very good customer of the tobacco 
industry, a very good customer of the nicotine industry, and very bad 
consequences for the health of our children, who become our young 
adults, who become our middle-aged adults--very bad costs for health at 
each stage.
  According to a Surgeon General's report released in March 2012, 
tobacco use among youth is a ``pediatric epidemic.'' But the thing is 
that our children just aren't starting to smoke because of 
happenstance. No, they are aggressively targeted by the tobacco 
industry. Big Tobacco is working day and night to design products to 
appeal to kids, to get them hooked on this deadly habit so that they 
will be reliable consumers or reliable customers.
  In fact, the industry calls them ``replacement smokers.'' The 
products we supplied before have resulted in a whole lot of our 
customers dying. So we need replacement smokers; we need replacement 
consumers.
  This clearly is a product with great harm associated with it. There 
are cigars, cigarillos, tobacco candy, snus, and e-cigarettes, and the 
list goes on and on. Products cost often as little as 99 cents and are 
sold in colorful or cool packaging, and nowhere is that more true than 
in the burgeoning e-cigarette industry.
  This chart shows very readily the strategy of using candy flavors and 
fruit flavors targeted at kids. They have everything from cherry and 
watermelon, and the list continues with all kinds of--check this out--
gummy bear flavors. When you advertise e-cigarette flavors like gummy 
bears, you are not targeting people over 21. You are targeting our 
children. You are targeting them with bubble gum flavor and wild cherry 
flavor and candy apple flavor. These flavors are not for adults. They 
mask the taste of the product and make it more tempting, more exciting 
for our young people.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to use a prop.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MERKLEY. I thank the Chair.
  This is an actual container, like these containers that are shown on 
the poster. This is called JJuice. They call it juice. They put juice 
in the title, as if to imply it is healthy. This is liquid nicotine 
targeted at our children with all of these kinds of flavors.
  This particular container was a response to the advocacy of myself 
and others to say that this targeting of our children is not OK. So the 
industry decided to create a ``Senator's Choice'' flavor, and they call 
this flavor ``the greatest blend to date'' using ``the purist, highest 
quality liquid essence of guava, combin[ing] it with all-natural, 
American-made raw ingredients.'' It is almost like a review of a fine 
wine, this ``Senator's Choice.'' Again, they created this specifically 
to protest the fact that Senators were standing up and saying that this 
targeting of children is not OK. It is immoral, and it is wrong. We 
have a law in place to end it, but the administration must act or that 
law has no impact.
  What is actually in this? Well, the ingredients list does not have 
essence of guava on the ingredient list. It has glycerin and propylene 
glycol, nicotine, and artificial flavorings, which somehow doesn't 
sound nearly as nice as the description on their Web site.
  Let's see the impact of this targeting of our youth because, 
unfortunately, Big Tobacco's--the nicotine addiction industry--
strategies work. That is why they are continuing to employ them. High 
school e-cigarette use tripled in just 1 year, from 2013 at 4.5 percent 
to 2014 at 13.4 percent. When we have the numbers for 2015, I am sure 
we will find that it is substantially higher because of this aggressive 
marketing campaign aimed at our junior high and high school students.
  Nearly one in seven high school students have used an e-cigarette in 
the last 30 days. That represents 2 million of our children--2 million 
of our teenagers nationwide.
  An updated CDC study released recently confirmed that youth tobacco 
use is continuing to grow. Our children are not using e-cigarettes to 
quit smoking; they are using e-cigarettes to start smoking. So when the 
industry claims that all of these e-cigarettes are improving the health 
of those who currently use cigarettes, it is another tobacco industry 
big lie. Big Tobacco brings us another big lie. Children are using 
these products to start smoking, not to stop smoking. Every day that we 
don't act, more of our children are at risk for a lifetime of tobacco 
and nicotine addiction.
  The choice is simple. Let's end this irresponsible inaction. Let's 
stop enriching the multibillion-dollar tobacco

[[Page S2142]]

industry by continuing to delay the regulations authorized back in 
2009. Let's do the right thing for America's children. Let's assist our 
children in living longer, healthier, happier lives by ending the 
targeting by Big Tobacco.
  Thank you, Madam President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I would like to find out how long the 
Senator from North Carolina wants to speak because I need to wrap up a 
matter on the FAA bill, which we are voting on in 15 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
  Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, through the Chair, I will take about 5 
minutes, not more.
  Mr. NELSON. Very fine.
  Thank you, Madam President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.

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