U.S. tobacco bill may pass despite cigarette lobby and pigs with lipstick ads

William Atkins
Thursday, 04 June 2009 18:21

Opinion and Analysis

The U.S. Senate is currently debating a new bill proposing many more restrictions to the marketing of tobacco products, specifically cigarettes, and making the Food and Drug Administration responsible for controlling tobacco advertising. This is important because the tobacco industry will stop at nothing to get adults and your kids to try one of their products.


The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed the bill. Now, it's the Senate's turn.

The June 4, 2009 Associated Press article “Tobacco bill a sharp change for lawmakers” talks about the details of the proposed bill and why the bill is likely to pass despite the concerted efforts of the tobacco lobby in Washington D.C.

What I thought was especially interesting in the article was the statement about when members of the U.S. Congress finally began to realize that something had to be done about cigarette advertising and especially ads that target our young children.

Here is the quote in the AP article: “One turning point came in 1994 when tobacco company CEOs, at a hearing held by anti-smoking champion Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., one after another denied that smoking was addictive.”

Then Nancy Brown, head of the American Heart Association, was quoted in the AP article: “With that, said Brown, ‘people realized that the tobacco industry will stop at nothing to deceive Americans.’”

Think about what was talked about in the U.S. Congress, and what was said by Ms. Brown.

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