Tom Harkin: “this morning the Surgeon General issued the 23d Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, but the first, as far as…”

“this morning the Surgeon General issued the 23d Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, but the first, as far as I can recall, looking specifically on tobacco and children. The Surgeon General's report highlights the shocking extent to which our youngsters are now exposed to and use tobacco. As this report pointed out, fully one-third of all American youngsters now smoke or use smokeless tobacco. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about this and about America's tobacco in our children and how we parents and grandparents are unwittingly subsidizing their addiction to this often lethal product. There is, I believe, a great consensus in our Nation that smoking is bad for our kids and bad for our future, and yet we keep subsidizing the problem to a considerable degree. The Surgeon General pointed out in her report this morning--and I will quote from some parts of it--``There has been a continuing shift from advertising to promotion largely because of banning cigarette ads from broadcast media.'' Clearly, the Surgeon General's report goes on to say, ``young people are being indoctrinated to tobacco promotion at a susceptible time in their lives.''”