[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[August 23, 1996]
[Pages 1332-1334]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Announcing the Final Rule To Protect Youth From Tobacco
August 23, 1996

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Linda, for your courage and your 
commitment to carry on Victor's legacy and your own crusade. Thank you, 
Mr. Vice President, Secretary Shalala, General McCaffrey. I'd like to 
say a special word of thanks to Commissioner Kessler and to Phil Lee, 
the Assistant Secretary of HHS. In different ways they have a great 
triumph today. Thank you, Dick Durbin, for being the first Member of 
Congress ever to talk to me about this issue. Thank you, Marty Meehan. 
Thank you to my former colleagues, the attorneys general. Mr. Kelley, I 
know you're retiring this year as the senior attorney general of 
America. And we served together back in the dark ages, and I can't 
imagine a more fitting capstone to your career than the fact that you've 
been a part of this, and we thank you. Thank you, Mark Green.
    I thank all the medical professionals who are here. I thank all the 
young people who are here, including Anna Santiago and Neal Stewart 
McSpadden, who came out here with us. I want to say a special word of 
thanks to three Members of Congress who are not here but who deserve to 
be because of their work on this issue, Senator Lautenberg of New 
Jersey, Senator Wellstone of Minnesota, and Congressman Henry Waxman of 
California. Thank you, Joe Califano, for beating on me about these 
issues all these years we've been friends and long before I ever became 
President. Thank you, sir. [Laughter]
    Thank you, Dr. Koop, for everything you have done to try to bring 
some sanity into the health policy of this country. This has been a 
great week for you; we had the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill a couple of days 
ago and this today. Maybe you can design an encore for us over the next 
month or two. [Laughter] But you have been a great force for good in 
this country, and we're grateful to you.
    If I might, I'd like to say just a couple of personal words to some 
people who really deserve an enormous amount of credit for this 
decision. The Vice President was altogether too modest and too 
restrained, but the first time we began to discuss this was about the 
time the FDA opened their inquiry. And he looked at me and I looked at 
him, and I said, ``Well, you know what this might lead to?'' And he 
said, ``I certainly hope so.'' [Laughter] And I said, ``Well, you 
know''--I shouldn't say this, this is our private conversation--I said, 
``You know, it really isn't an accident that nobody else has ever tried 
to do this. It's not an accident. This is not going to be one of those 
freebies, you know.'' [Laughter] And he began to talk about his sister 
who died of lung cancer and how much he loved his sister. We've had so 
many conversations about his sister that--not just about this, but about 
her life, the fact that she was one of the very first Peace Corps 
volunteers--that I feel almost that I know her personally. And I could 
see in his eyes this determination to redeem the promise of her 
wonderful life.
    And I would also like to thank Nancy Gore Hunger's husband, Frank 
Hunger, who now serves as our Assistant Attorney General for the civil 
division. Thank you for being here, Frank. I know this is a great day 
for you.
    I'd like to thank my wife, who has been talking to me about this 
issue for 20 years, and my wonderful daughter, who convinced my mother 
to quit smoking on her 8th birthday, something I was never able to do.
    So each of us has a personal journey here that has brought us to 
this point. But today we are here as a nation to try to help our parents 
do a better job in raising their children

[[Page 1333]]

to be strong and healthy and good citizens and to do our duty in that 
regard. We've tried to do a lot of things to help our kids over the last 
4 years and to help parents raise their children. We've worked hard on 
cultural issues, supporting things like the V-chip and educational 
television. We had a big increase in support for antidrug programs in 
our schools and for drug treatment, and we vetoed efforts to reduce 
those, although we should be investing more. We have a zero tolerance 
policy to keep guns out of school. We're requiring our States to enforce 
antidrinking and driving laws. We defended drug testing cases involving 
student athletes. We've worked to bring order and discipline into our 
children's lives by encouraging and giving support to communities that 
try things like community-based curfews and school uniforms and tougher 
enforcement of truancy laws.
    We know, however, that in spite of all the things that are going 
right in this country--with the economy up and more jobs, with the crime 
rate down, with fewer people on welfare and food stamps, dramatically 
higher percentage of our young children immunized--that we have 
continued to see substantial rises in tobacco and drug use among our 
young people. We know that while the scientific evidence is clearly 
unclear, children who do smoke cigarettes are much more likely to engage 
in other risky behavior, including the use of marijuana and cocaine.
    So we have to keep pressing forward to deal with these challenges, 
every one of them. And I want to thank General McCaffrey for being 
willing to give up his four stars and magnificent campaign to take on 
the drug fight for America's children and America's future. I thank you, 
sir.
    Today we are taking direct action to protect our children from 
tobacco and especially the advertising that hooks children on a product. 
I hear from time to time politicians say that they don't really think 
advertising has much to do with it. And whenever I hear one say that I 
say, well, how come we're all spending so much money advertising when we 
run for office then? [Laughter] If it's immaterial, let's just pull it 
all off and see what happens to us. [Laughter]
    Cigarette smoking is the most significant public health problem 
facing our people. More Americans die every year from smoking-related 
diseases than from AIDS, car accidents, murders, suicides, and fires 
combined. The human cost doesn't begin to calculate the economic costs--
the thing that galvanized the legal claims of the attorneys general, the 
absolutely staggering burdens on the American health care system and on 
our economy in general.
    But make no mistake about it, the human cost is by far the most 
important issue, for every day, even though it's illegal, 3,000 of our 
young people start smoking, and 1,000 of them will die earlier than they 
would otherwise die as a result. The vast majority of people who smoke 
in America today started when they were teenagers. If they don't start 
smoking when they're on a schoolyard, it's very likely they never will.
    This epidemic is no accident. Children are bombarded daily by 
massive marketing campaigns that play on their vulnerabilities, their 
insecurities, their longings to be something in the world. Joe Camel 
promises that smoking will make you cool. Virginia Slims' models whisper 
that smoking will help you stay thin. T-shirts and sports sponsorships 
sends the message that healthy and vigorous people smoke and that 
smoking is fun.
    A year ago this month, we launched a comprehensive strategy to kick 
tobacco out of the lives of our children. We proposed strong 
restrictions on advertising, marketing, and sales of cigarettes to 
children. In the year that followed, the FDA received a torrent of 
comments from the public, more than 700,000, by far the largest 
outpouring of public response in the FDA's history. The FDA has heard 
from doctors, scientists, tobacco companies, and tens of thousands of 
children. We have carefully considered the evidence. It is clear that 
the action being taken today is the right thing to do, scientifically, 
legally, and morally.
    So today we are acting. First, young people will have to prove their 
age with an ID to buy cigarettes. Second, cigarette vending machines 
will be banned from anywhere children and teenagers can go. Third, 
children will be free of tobacco advertising on billboards near their 
schools and playgrounds, and billboards in other locations will be 
restricted to black and white, text only messages. Fourth, if a tobacco 
ad is in a publication children and teenagers are likely to read, it 
also has to be black and white with no pictures. Fifth, companies will 
no longer be permitted to target young people with marketing gimmicks 
like T-shirts and gym bags. Sixth, cigarette companies may no longer use 
brand names to sponsor tennis tournaments, auto races, and

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other sporting events. Finally, the FDA will soon take steps to require 
the tobacco industry to educate our children about the real dangers of 
smoking. There is abundant evidence of both these troubling trends that 
a lot of young people simply don't believe there is any risk to their 
health. With this historic action we are taking today, Joe Camel and the 
Marlboro Man will be out of our children's reach forever.
    I want to be clear--we've said it before, let's say it again--
cigarettes are a legal product for adults. They have a perfect right to 
decide whether to smoke. There are many, many good people who have been 
farming, growing tobacco for generations in their families. They have a 
right to make a living for themselves and their families, and they will 
continue to do so. But let's be honest: We hope that over the long run, 
if we can dramatically reduce rates of smoking among children, the 
overall consumption of cigarettes will decline. If that happens, these 
good people who farm the land and work hard should not be left behind. 
And all of us who have sought this course have a responsibility to help 
them if they face difficulties.
    The cigarette companies still have a right to market their products 
to adults. But today we are drawing the line on children, fulfilling our 
obligation as adults to protect them from influences that too often are 
stronger than they are.
    As I said before, I want to say again, this action is a tribute to 
so many of you who are here today, to the parents, the teachers, the 
doctors, the public officials. Dr. Bristow, I particularly want to 
commend the AMA for its writings in its journal, its relentless efforts 
to educate the American people through the physicians of this country. 
But I'd like to pay special tribute to the children of America who have 
joined this crusade, who have organized and led a massive grassroots 
movement throughout America to educate and inform people about the 
dangers of tobacco smoking for children. They've staged teach-ins and 
``Kick Butts'' days all across the country. They have used positive peer 
pressure on people who could care less what a lot of us old fogies think 
to teach their fellow students that smoking is not cool. So I want to 
thank these children for the work they have done to save their 
generation.
    A lot of the work we do around here we know will only be fully 
manifest in people's lives in the future. We know we can't guarantee the 
success of any individual or family, but we have to guarantee them the 
tools and the conditions that will enable them to make the most of their 
own lives. Today we take a real step to make sure that they have those 
lives in full measure. We have today met our responsibility to help our 
country protect its values, protect its children, and ensure its future.
    Thank you all for what you've done.

Note: The President spoke at 1:52 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Linda Crawford, widow of Victor 
Crawford, a former tobacco lobbyist turned antismoking advocate; 
Representatives Richard J. Durbin and Martin T. Meehan; Frank J. Kelley, 
Michigan attorney general; Mark Green, New York City public advocate; 
Anna Santiago, recipient of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Advocate 
of Year Award; Neal Stewart McSpadden, antismoking advocate; Joseph A. 
Califano, Jr., president, National Center on Addiction and Substance 
Abuse at Columbia University; C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General; 
and Lonnie R. Bristow, former president, American Medical Association. 
The Food and Drug Administration final rule on children and tobacco was 
published in the Federal Register on August 28.