[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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