[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18934-18935]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                TOBACCO

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there is hardly a family in America that 
hasn't had an experience with tobacco and cancer. My family is no 
exception. When I was 14 years old, my 53-year-old father died of lung 
cancer. He smoked two packs of Camels a day. He was hopelessly addicted 
to tobacco, and we lost him at what I now view as a very early age. I 
can recall, as a student in high school, being in his hospital room 
when he drew his last, labored breath and the sadness that fell over me 
on November 13, 1959. I didn't walk out of that hospital room vowing I 
would get even with tobacco companies, but I never escaped the memory 
of that family experience. Many other families have a similar story to 
tell.
  The day came many years later when I had an opportunity, as a new 
Member of the House of Representatives, to do something. There is 
another story leading up to that experience. It involves the customary 
race of Members of Congress for airplanes. We spend most of our life 
racing through airports. In this particular instance I was in Phoenix, 
AZ trying to fly to Chicago, long before there were transportation 
security agencies and people taking off their shoes and X-ray machines. 
I got to the airport 20 minutes before the plane was about to take off. 
I raced to the United Airlines counter. A young woman was there and I 
gave her my ticket.
  She said: I will get your boarding pass, but you will to have run to 
the gate. She gave me a boarding pass. This was 20 years ago. She 
handed to it me. I looked, and it was a middle seat in the smoking 
section of the airplane. I knew this was a long flight. I said: I know 
I have to get down to the gate, but can't you give me a different seat 
in the nonsmoking section? She said: No, it is the last seat. There is 
nothing I can do about it. Then she looked down at my ticket and my 
title and she said: But, Congressman, there is something you can do 
about it.
  I got on the airplane. I sat between two what I now characterize as 
chain-smoking sumo wrestlers and spent several hours in misery 
breathing in their secondhand smoke. I looked around the airplane and 
thought to myself, what about that elderly lady who is up there in the 
smoking section two rows away; what about that woman with the little 
baby? This can't be healthy.
  I came back to Washington and said to my staff: I want to introduce a 
bill banning smoking on airplanes. There was silence in the room. Then 
they said: You are crazy. Nobody beats the tobacco lobby. The entire 
leadership of the House of Representatives, Democrats and Republicans, 
doesn't want any tobacco amendments for a lot of political reasons.
  Naive and undaunted, I went forward with my quest to ban smoking on 
airplanes. I had a lot of help along the way. Congressman Bill Young of 
Florida, who still serves, had been one of the early pioneers in 
dealing with tobacco and smoking. He courageously stepped forward and 
said: I will make it a bipartisan amendment, but we don't have a 
chance. We were both on the Appropriations Committee. I managed to at 
least create an opportunity for a vote on the floor of the House.
  I reached the floor of the House because of another great 
Congressman, now deceased, Claude Pepper. Claude Pepper served in this 
Chamber as a Senator. He was defeated and went over and served in the 
House of Representatives. Claude Pepper was chairman of the Rules 
Committee. He came to my rescue when I was about to lose in the Rules 
Committee. I never appreciated why he did that, why he gave me a chance 
to get a vote on this issue, until later when somebody told me that as 
a Senator in the 1930s, Claude Pepper of Florida had pushed for the 
creation of the National Cancer Institute. He didn't talk much about 
tobacco, being a southerner, but it meant a lot to him personally. He 
more than anyone gave me my chance to bring this amendment to the 
floor.
  So on July 13, 1987, 20 years ago today, I got my chance to offer the 
amendment to ban smoking on flights of 2 hours or less. In the 
galleries of the House were seated uniformed flight attendants from 
major airlines. They were on my side. They were sick and tired of 
breathing in all the smoke on the airplanes. We came to the floor 
expecting to lose. I didn't realize at the time that the House of 
Representatives, and you can add the Senate into the equation, was the 
largest frequent flier club in America. We spend more time on airplanes 
than most people. As the amendment was debated, Congressmen started 
coming forward to speak on behalf of the amendment--some of the most 
liberal, some of the most conservatives, Republicans, Democrats from 
all over the country. I could feel the momentum building. The debate 
went on for a long time, and the vote was finally taken. The vote was 
198 to 193. My amendment passed.
  After it passed, I called over to the Senate and contacted the man 
who was chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on 
Transportation, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. I said to Frank 
Lautenberg: Would you consider offering this same amendment in the 
Senate? He said he would, and he did, successfully.
  That amendment changed America. I didn't know it at the time and I 
don't want to take more credit than is due, but at the end of the 
debate to ban smoking on airplanes, people started asking obvious 
questions. If secondhand smoke is dangerous on an airplane, why isn't 
it dangerous in a train, on a bus, in a hospital, in a school, at a 
Head Start center, in an office building?
  We know what has happened 20 years later. It has now become customary 
for people not to smoke and unusual to see anyone smoking in an 
enclosed space that is not their own home. That is a dramatic change. I 
think it is a change for the better. As a result of that law, which was 
a challenge to me, America is a healthier place. Our attitude toward 
tobacco and smoking is much different today than it was.
  Last year in my home State of Illinois, a record-breaking 36 cities 
and counties enacted smokefree laws, more than any other State in the 
Nation. I am very proud of that. This was a milestone for another 
reason. We learned the mighty tobacco lobby is not invincible. We 
proved it on the floor of the House and the Senate 20 years ago. We are 
proving it now in city councils and State legislatures across America. 
This was one of the first times the tobacco industry had ever lost an 
important rollcall vote on the floor of the House. It showed that 
Congress could stand up against special interest groups, the wealthy 
and the powerful, those financing campaigns, and instead vote for the 
health of all Americans. Twenty years later, smoking is banned on 
almost all commercial flights worldwide.
  I had a funny experience a few years after we passed our law. My wife 
and I were flying to Portugal through London. We changed planes in 
London to Air Portugal. The British travelers got on the plane and I 
was shocked to find they had a smoking section on the airplane. I 
couldn't believe it. It turned

[[Page 18935]]

out it was a sign that was put on a seat that said ``smoking allowed 
behind this sign.'' A group of British tourists got on and saw this 
sign and couldn't believe it and said to the flight attendant: What is 
this all about? She answered: If you want to be in a nonsmoking 
section, you sit on this side of the sign; smoking section is on the 
other side of the sign. One of the ladies said: This will never do. She 
grabbed the sign and went to the last seat in the plane and put it on 
that seat.
  My wife turned to me and said: Look what you got started.
  I don't want to take credit for getting that started, but I am kind 
of proud of being part of it. I congratulate a number of pioneers in 
this area. Air Canada was way ahead of us on this issue. Northwest 
Airlines was one of the first in the Nation to move toward smokefree 
flights--they deserve special recognition--even before a Federal law 
was passed.
  We need to remind ourselves from time to time about tobacco and 
cancer and heart disease. We have been lulled into the feeling that 
this problem is under control. Tobacco-related disease is the No. 1 
preventable cause of death in America today. It still is an issue. 
There are still too many children who take up smoking, I mean literally 
children. Tobacco companies know that the way to ensnare someone into 
tobacco addiction is to get them started as kids. Kids, rebellious and 
curious, turn to tobacco, developing an addiction they don't even 
understand, finding it hard to quit. They become early, lifelong 
smokers, and chances are one in three will die because of that habit.
  This is still an issue. It is an issue we are going to face soon here 
in the Senate, because the Finance Committee is considering increasing 
the tobacco tax on America. I am sure there will be screams that that 
is unfair to smokers. But I have reached the point now where I have to 
tell them that there is a great expense associated with their 
addiction. We also know that increased cost of product reduces the 
likelihood that kids will use tobacco products. So there is a positive 
that will come out of it.
  We know when it comes to cancer, heart disease, diseases that affect 
virtually every organ in the human body and, most importantly, impact 
the life of virtually every family, tobacco is a negative factor.
  In 2006, the Surgeon General's report entitled ``Health Consequences 
of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke,'' reaffirmed previous 
findings. Secondhand smoke causes heart disease, cancer, respiratory 
problems, and even death. What was once considered impossible is now 
industry practice. What was once unknown is now conventional wisdom. It 
is time for us to take the next big step.
  Next week my colleagues, as members of the HELP Committee, led by my 
friend Senator Ted Kennedy, will debate giving the Food and Drug 
Administration the authority to regulate tobacco.
  Most Americans do not know that tobacco has a curious place in the 
law. It is not considered a food or a drug. If it were a food or a 
drug, it would be regulated. Those who make the product would have to 
disclose its contents and would have to put meaningful warning labels 
on the product. Tobacco has had carved out for it a niche in the law so 
that requirement does not apply. Nearly every other industry in America 
that puts public health at risk is regulated by some Federal agency, 
but not tobacco.
  If we are going to continue the fight against big tobacco, and the 
death and disease which this product creates, if we are going to secure 
the ability of all Americans to breathe air that is free from 
secondhand smoke, if we are to affirm the right of all of us to lead 
healthy and productive lives, we have to take this next step and allow 
the Food and Drug Administration to regulate this product. We must 
allow the FDA to regulate an industry that continues to cost us the 
lives of more than 43,000 Americans and over $100 billion in health 
care costs and lost productivity every single year.
  Today, there will not be any cakes or parties, but we celebrate the 
20th anniversary of a vote in the House of Representatives which has 
been an important part of my legislative career. This vote, to ban 
smoking on airplanes, 20 years ago, played an important role in 
launching the smokefree movement in America. I urge my colleagues to 
move us closer to finishing the work we have started. We stood up to 
the tobacco industry then, and we can do it again now.

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