[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12098]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PASSAGE OF THE ``FEDERAL 
                    CIGARETTE LABELING ACT'' OF 1965

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 21, 2015

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 50th 
anniversary of the ``Federal Cigarette Labeling Act'' of 1965.
  Passed by the 89th Congress, the ``Federal Cigarette Labeling Act'' 
was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 27, 1965, in 
response to the mounting scientific evidence that smoking cigarettes 
causes lung cancer and is a serious public health concern for the 
nation.
  At the time this act was being debated in Congress, cigarette smoking 
was simply not viewed as a public health concern.
  Cigarette smoking was viewed as a norm, with virtually no harmful 
effects.
  Tobacco companies often falsified data to make the claim that some 
cigarettes were even healthy for you to smoke.
  One famous advertisement campaign was for the Lucky Strike cigarettes 
made by the American Tobacco Company in the 1930s which used 
advertisements that stated ``20,679 physicians say Luckies are less 
irritating.''
  Another advertisement campaign by the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was 
called the ``More Doctors'' campaign which attempted to reshape the 
image that cigarettes were safe.
  These are just a few of the false advertisements about the 
implications of smoking on an individual's health by the tobacco 
industry and which were a contributing factor in the rise of lung 
cancer mortality rates in the United States.
  To assist in educating the American people about the dangers of 
smoking the ``Federal Cigarette Labeling Act'' required the entire 
tobacco industry to adapt to new regulations mandating that cigarette 
packages have a health warning label that stated, ``Caution: Cigarette 
Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health.''
  By implementing this simple warning label on cigarette packing, the 
public was given a notice on every box of the potential harm these 
tobacco smoking products may cause.
  This legislation also required the Federal Trade Commission to report 
to Congress annually on the effectiveness of cigarette labeling for the 
public.
  Along with labeling, this legislation created a framework of how the 
current promotional practices were to be employed by the tobacco 
industry for promoting their products.
  This legislation accelerated the American public's knowledge of the 
true dangers of smoking cigarettes.
  In 1986 Congress continued this endeavor to educate the American 
public on the harms of tobacco use by passing the ``Comprehensive 
Smokeless Tobacco Health Education Act,'' which extended the health 
warning labels from just cigarettes to include smokeless tobacco 
products, along with the advertisements for them.
  In my city of Houston, Texas, lung cancer has become the deadliest 
cancer for my constituents, affecting not just former smokers but also 
nonsmokers.
  Progressive legislation like the ``Federal Cigarette Labeling Act'' 
has helped inform the American people of the potential danger of using 
tobacco products.
  Mr. Speaker, this is why I am proud to commemorate the 50th 
anniversary of the ``Federal Cigarette Labeling Act'' of 1965 and to 
recognize its remarkable contributions to American public's access to 
information that allows them to make the best informed decision for 
their personal health.

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