CHILDREN AND TOBACCO: THE PROBLEM
Date: August 10, 1995
For Release: Immediately
Contact: FDA Press Office, (301) 443-1130
CHILDREN AND TOBACCO: THE PROBLEM
Easy Access
Despite state laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors, children can easily buy these products. One study estimated that teenagers annually consume 516 million packs of cigarettes and 26 million containers of chewing tobacco. A review of 13 studies of over-the- counter sales found that on average, children and adolescents were able to successfully buy tobacco products 67 percent of the time.
Vending machines are a primary source of tobacco products for young smokers. A study by the vending machine industry found that 22 percent of 13-year-old smokers use vending machines compared with 2 percent of 17-year-old smokers. The 1994 Surgeon General's Report found that young people were able to buy cigarettes in vending machines an average of 88 percent of the time.Mail-order sales provide no sure way of verifying age. Current industry practice only asks the consumer to provide a birth date or check box to verify age.
Self-service displays allow children to easily obtain tobacco products. The Institute of Medicine, in its landmark 1994 report, "Growing Up Tobacco Free," concluded that placing tobacco products "out of reach reinforces the message that tobacco products are not in the same class as candy or potato chips."
Free samples are obtained by children, including those in elementary school, despite industry code prohibiting distribution to anyone under 21. Free samples occur on street corners, at shopping malls and sporting events. A New Jersey survey found that one-third of high school students who were smokers or ex-smokers reported receiving free samples before age 16.
Appealing to Children
Advertising and promotional activities can greatly influence a young person's decision to smoke or use smokeless tobacco products. Awareness of tobacco products and messages is very high among even the youngest children. Studies show that 30 percent of 3-year-olds and 91 percent of 6-year-olds could identify "Joe Camel" as a symbol for smoking. The Centers for Disease Control recently reported that 86 percent of underage smokers who purchase their own cigarettes purchase one of the three most heavily advertised brands: Marlboro, Camel and Newport.
Tobacco products are among the most heavily advertised products in the United States. In 1993, the tobacco industry spent $6.2 billion on advertising and promoting cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Tobacco advertising expenditures have increased more than 1,500 percent between 1970 (the year before television and radio advertising was banned) and 1992.
Promotion of tobacco products through non-tobacco items such as t-shirts, hats and gym bags and through sponsorship of events is reaching children. A 1992 Gallup Survey found that half of adolescent smokers and one quarter of adolescents who do not smoke owned at least one tobacco promotional item such as a tee-shirt, cap, sporting good, or lighter. Another report found that one out of four 12- and 13-year-olds own one of these items. Used or worn by young people, these become "walking billboards," promoting these products in schools and other locations where tobacco advertising is usually prohibited. Sponsorship of events such as tennis tournaments, car races, and rodeos associate tobacco products with excitement and glamour, and provide a way for tobacco brands to be advertised on television despite the broadcast advertising ban.
CHILDREN AND TOBACCO: THE FACTS
Date: August 10, 1995
For Release: Immediately
Contact: FDA Press Office, (301) 443-1130
CHILDREN AND TOBACCO: THE FACTS
The Clinton Administration is proposing a comprehensive and coordinated set of measures to significantly reduce the number of children and adolescents who become addicted to nicotine in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco). Children are becoming addicted to these products, with more than 80 percent of smokers beginning to smoke by age 18.
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, and health care costs associated with smoking soared to more than $50 billion in 1993, according to the Centers for Disease Control. While the proposed measures will continue to maintain the legal status of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products for adults, they will reduce the easy access and strong appeal for children.
Preventing children from smoking is key to reducing the deadly toll of smoking. The Clinton Administration's plan will help parents provide their children with an environment in which to grow up healthy.
A Pediatric Disease
Children are becoming addicted to nicotine. The average teenage smoker starts at 14 1/2 years old and becomes a daily smoker before age 18. More than 80 percent of all adult smokers had tried smoking by their 18th birthday and more than half of them had already become regular smokers by that age. Studies show that if people do not begin to smoke as teenagers or children, it is unlikely they will ever do so.
Each and every day, another 3,000 young people become regular smokers, and nearly 1,000 of them will eventually die as a result of their smoking. Currently, more than 3 million children and adolescents smoke cigarettes, and 1 million adolescent boys currently use smokeless tobacco. Smoking by young people is rising sharply. Between 1991 and 1994, the percentage of eighth graders who smoke increased 30 percent, and the percentage of tenth graders who smoke increased 22 percent.
Children tend to vastly underestimate the likelihood that they will become addicted to these products. Although only 5 percent of daily smokers surveyed in high school said they would definitely be smoking five years later, close to 75 percent were smoking 7 to 9 years later. A survey conducted in 1992 found that approximately two- thirds of adolescents who smoked said they wanted to quit and 70 percent said they would not start smoking if they could make that choice again.
Smoking: Leading Cause of Avoidable, Premature Death
Tobacco use takes enormous, deadly toll each year. Tobacco products are responsible for more than 400,000 deaths each year due to cancer, respiratory illness, heart disease, and other health problems. Cigarettes kill more Americans each year than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, illegal drugs and fires combined. Smokers who die as a result of smoking would have lived on average 12 to 15 years longer if they had not smoked.
The health care costs associated with tobacco use are rising. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that in 1993 the health care costs associated with smoking totalled $50 billion: $26.9 billion for hospital costs; $15.5 billion for doctors; $4.9 billion in nursing home costs; $1.8 billion for prescription drugs and $900 million for home-health care expenditures. The Office of Technology Assessment calculated the social costs attributable to smoking in 1990 at $68 billion. That calculation was based on $20.8 billion in direct health care costs and $6.9 billion in lost productivity from disabilities and $40.3 billion in lost productivity from premature deaths.
CHILDREN AND TOBACCO: THE PROPOSAL
Date: August 10, 1995
For Release: Immediately
Contact: FDA Press Office, (301) 443-1130
CHILDREN AND TOBACCO: THE PROPOSAL
The Clinton Administration is proposing a comprehensive and coordinated plan to reduce smoking by children and adolescents by 50 percent. It builds on previous actions taken by Congress and others such as the ban on television advertising and state laws to prohibit the sale or use of tobacco by children. It follows recommendations by the American Medical Association and the Institute of Medicine. Experts have consistently recommended that the keys to achieving the goal are: reducing access and limiting the appeal for children. This ambitious initiative accomplishes that objective, while preserving the availability of tobacco products for adults. The proposals announced today include:
Reducing Easy Access by Children
Require age verification and face-to-face sale and eliminate mail order sales, vending machines, free samples, self- service displays, and sale of single cigarettes ("loosies") and packages with fewer than 20 cigarettes ("kiddie packs").
Reducing Appeal to Children
Ban outdoor advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds. Permit black-and-white text only advertising for all other outdoor advertising, including billboards, signs inside and outside of buses, and all point-of-sale advertising.
Permit black-and-white text only advertising in publications with significant youth readership (under 18). (Significant readership means more than 15 percent or more than 2 million. No restrictions on print advertising below these thresholds).
Prohibit sale or giveaway of products like caps or gym bags that carry cigarette or smokeless tobacco product brand names or logos. Prohibit exchange of non-tobacco products for proof of purchase of tobacco products.
Prohibit brand name sponsorship of sporting or entertainment events, but permit it in the corporate name.
Require industry to fund ($150 million annually) a public education campaign to prevent kids from smoking.
CHILDREN AND TOBACCO: WHAT OTHERS SAY
Date: August 10, 1995
For Release: Immediately
Contact: FDA Press Office, (301) 443-1130
CHILDREN AND TOBACCO: WHAT OTHERS SAY
"I figure if it's really so bad for you, they wouldn't be selling them everywhere. I mean, you walk into the Stop 'N' Go, and there's a whole wall of them right up front at the cash register. If they were really that bad for you, they'd make them less accessible."
--Brian Grindele, 18The New York Times, July 30, 1995
"Given all that we know, the scientific case for protecting children from tobacco is indisputable. The moral imperative to act is imperative....This is not a Democratic or a Republican issue. It is a bipartisan, pro-child, pro-family, pro-health issue."
--President Jimmy CarterUSA Today, August 3, 1995
"The tobacco industry continues to insist that smoking is a simple matter of individual rights and adult choice. If that were true, I would be on their side. But we're not talking about adults. We're talking about keeping an addictive and lethal substance out of the hands of children. Neither the FDA nor anyone else is talking about prohibiting adults from smoking."
--Former U.S. Sen. Barry GoldwaterWall Street Journal, August 8, 1995
"The American Medical Association reminds physicians, the public, and politicians that the damning evidence against tobacco makes opposition to its use a pressing, nonpartisan public health issue."
--EditorialJournal of the American Medical Association July 19, 1995
"We believe that current tobacco regulations, limited primarily to a ban on television advertising and the promotion of warning labels on packages, are insufficient in protecting America's children. The FDA should have authority to control tobacco by placing new limits on tobacco advertising, creating stricter licensing regulations for vendors, and banning cigarette vending machines."
--American Public Health AssociationLetter to President Clinton from APHA
July 13, 1995
"What is most significant about teens and smoking, however, is that, from all indications, smoking is an addiction that is typically initiated during the teenage years or not at all. For the great majority of smokers, this addiction begins before they are old enough to purchase tobacco lawfully. In fact, 75 percent of all adult smokers report that they became addicted to tobacco before they were 18 years old. Very few smokers take up smoking for the first time as adults. If youth access can be controlled effectively, and the decision whether to smoke can be delayed until adulthood, then, over time, smoking will be greatly reduced as a major addiction in our society."
--"No Sale: Youth, Tobacco and Responsible Retailing" Working Group of State Attorneys General December, 1994"The nation must commit itself to a vigorous public health initiative in tobacco control....The nation cannot reasonably expect to eliminate tobacco-related disease and death by 2010. However, by putting a youth-centered preventions strategy at the center of tobacco control efforts, and by implementing the initiatives proposed (to that end) in this report, the nation can take a firm and resolute step on that path."
--"Growing Up Tobacco Free"Institute of Medicine, September, 1994
"The concept--pediatric disease--qualifies as an epiphany, given the acknowledged authority of society over a minor. He/she has to go to school, has to wait until a certain age before being allowed to drive, to vote, to drink beer. It yields no substantial libertarian ground to add to the list enforcement mechanisms designed to dissuade the 15-year-old from taking up a habit that brings on premature and painful death."
--William F. Buckley Jr.Syndicated columnist, March, 1995
"... from a public-health standpoint, keeping kids away from cigarettes is the single most effective way to fight the nation's leading preventable cause of death."
--"Hooked on Tobacco: The Teen Epidemic" Consumer Reports, March 1995Further Reading
: "The Global Tobacco Epidemic"Scientific American, May, 1995 "The Nicotine Connection"
Chemical and Engineering News, November 28, 1995 "Hooked on Tobacco: The Teen Epidemic"
Consumer Reports, March, 1995 "Nicotine Addiction in Young People"
The New England Journal of Medicine, July 20, 1995
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