Henry Waxman: “I have a chart that I want to display so that Members can see the full consequences of this tobacco issue. This chart…”

“I have a chart that I want to display so that Members can see the full consequences of this tobacco issue. This chart indicates the causes of death in the United States. Deaths related to tobacco come close to 20 percent. It is higher than the combination of deaths due to illicit drugs, motor vehicle accidents, sexual behavior, guns and firearms, toxic agents, microbial agents, and alcohol; all of them combined. This is a major health problem in this country. We need to address it. The Centers for Disease Control came out with a report a couple of weeks ago. They have indicated to us that we are losing this war against smoking in America. Forty percent of white teenaged girls are smoking. Three thousand new kids are taking up smoking each day. What are we are going to do about it? What is a commonsense rational policy for this Nation to avoid the consequences of 400,000 people dying each year? How do we stop our kids from taking up smoking? Now, the Durbin amendment is not a solution. We need some commonsense solutions, but it is a reasonable step that we ought to take.”