Time to give FDA authority to regulate tobacco!

A guest column from Illinois Advocacy Committee chair Kathy Grady ran in the State Journal-Register in Springfield over the weekend. Here it is:


Your opinion: Give FDA authority over tobacco

STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted May 31, 2008 @ 01:43 AM

Three years ago my father died after a long struggle with tobacco-related COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), so I can relate to the devastating effects tobacco use can have on individuals and their families. Additionally, through my role with the American Heart Association and extensive work with heart failure patients, I’ve witnessed the debilitating impact that tobacco can make on the body, resulting in cardiovascular disease, stroke and, unfortunately, death.

Even though tobacco use causes these and other devastating health effects, currently no government agency has oversight over the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products. All other products such as food, drugs and even lipstick are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but no agency has oversight over tobacco products.

A lifetime of addiction nearly always starts in the teenage years; nearly 90 percent of adult smokers began smoking as teens, so any attempt to limit the national epidemic of tobacco addiction must begin with eliminating the marketing and manufacturing of these products to target children.

A new report released by leading public health organizations shows the extent to which tobacco manufacturers take advantage of the lack of regulation over its industry to entice new users. The report shows how the tobacco industry attracts children by adding candy flavorings like strawberry, banana and grape to their products. They also know that smoking is unpleasant for new smokers, so they carefully design the product to make it less harsh by adding sugars and chemicals that numb the throat. They even address how the cigarette should be designed so that the novice smoker can light it more easily.

Now, Congress has an historic opportunity to protect children and save lives. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (S 625/HR 1108) is bipartisan legislation that would give the FDA authority over tobacco products and their marketing. While these bills would help protect all Americans from the ravages of tobacco, it includes specific provisions to protect our children from this deadly addiction.

The FDA legislation would restrict tobacco advertising and promotions. It would ban outdoor advertising near schools, remove advertising with colorful pictures that appeal to children from stores and from magazines with high youth readership, and put larger, more effective warning labels on the cigarette packs themselves. The bill also specifically bans candy-flavored cigarettes that are used to lure our children into a lifetime of addiction.

The companies’ techniques to entice children have become increasingly sophisticated and effective. R.J. Reynolds, now Reynolds American, the same company that once marketed cigarettes to kids with Joe Camel, a cartoon character, launched a series of flavored cigarettes, including a pineapple- and coconut-flavored cigarette called “Kauai Kolada” and a citrus-flavored cigarette called “Twista Lime.”

The tobacco companies aggressively market to kids and have been extraordinarily successful. Just three heavily advertised brands — Marlboro, Camel and Newport — are the top choices of more than 80 percent of kids who smoke. Marlboro, the most heavily advertised brand, constitutes almost 50 percent of the youth market but only about 40 percent of smokers over age 25.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, the tobacco companies spend more than $13.4 billion a year to market their products in this country. That’s $36 million a day; much of their marketing is directed at kids. In fact, a recent survey released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids found that teens are almost twice as likely as adults to remember tobacco advertising — 49 percent of teens and 26 percent of adults said they had seen advertising for cigarettes or spit tobacco in the last two weeks.

Moreover, tobacco industry documents, research on the effect of the cigarette companies’ marketing efforts on kids, and the opinions of advertising experts combine to reveal the intent and the success of the industry’s efforts to attract new smokers from the ranks of children.

A Senate majority of 57 senators are sponsoring this legislation, as are 218 members of the House. I applaud Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama for being co-sponsors of the bill. I urge the rest of the Illinois delegation to support this life-saving legislation. With their help, Congress can take a major step to protect our families and save lives.

Kathleen Grady, Ph.D., is the administrative director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Center for Heart Failure and associate professor in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. She is chair of the Illinois Advocacy Committee for the American Heart Association and lives in Arlington Heights.

Quote Worth Repeating: Health Care For All Or For None?

AHA's national CEO, Cass Wheeler recently made a presentation with this compelling title: “The Wreckonomics of Health Care.” He was the keynote speaker for the Wallace Conerly Health Policy Symposium held April 4, 2008 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

Calling for major reforms in the health care system he said, “If we don’t have a health care system that works for all of us, we will soon have a system that works for none of us.”

Since most Americans -- professionals in the field or jut consumers -- agree with that statement, it is worth repeating. The uneven availability of health care is a growing burden on this country. As I've said before, leaving health care to the "free market" is nonsense because we cannot really expect someone dealing with their health or their family's health to make rational decisions. Left uncontrolled, these powerful conflicts have the potential to drain the treasury and divide the nation....

Safe Routes To School Training A Must For School and Municipal Officials

The Illinois Department of Transportation is sponsoring a series of free trainings on the Illinois Safe Routes to School Program. Trainings will introduce participants to the Safe Routes program, and will prepare them to develop a comprehensive School Travel Plan and apply for funding.

Safe Routes to School is an innovative federal program that supports programs and projects that enable and encourage students in kindergarten through eight grades to walk and bicycle to school. Over the next two years, this program will provide roughly $13 million dollars to school districts, local governments and non-profit organizations who would like to promote walking and cycling among school children.

To register for training, please visit our website: http://www.dot.il.gov/saferoutes/SafeRoutesRegisterTrainingContent.aspx.
Registration is limited -- only two representatives from each community attend. School district and municipal representatives are highly encouraged to attend.

2008 Safe Routes to School Training

June
17th – Deerfield
18th – Aurora
19th – East Hazel Crest

24th – Quad Cities
25th – Macomb
26th – Bloomington

July
8th – Caseyville
9th – Mt. Vernon
10th – Charleston

For more information about the Illinois Safe Routes to School Program, please visit www.dot.il.gov/saferoutes.

Stroke Bill Passes IL House Unanimously!

Our top legislative agenda item, House Bill 4699, which establishes Primary Stroke Centers in Illinois passed the state House of Representatives with a vote 0f 114-0-0 yesterday! Kudos to the bill's sponsor, Rep. Bob Biggins! While the bill is a work in progress, getting it out of the House gives us an opportunity to keep the bill alive to work on it in the Senate and pass it this session.

Below, I am pasting in a recent letter to the editor from the Daily Herald on this subject:



Legislation to help victims of stroke

Published: 5/15/2008 12:07 AM

We are stroke survivors and co-founders of Stroke Survivors Empowering Each Other, or SSEEO. SSEEO was created as an umbrella group to provide local stroke survivors with a common voice and to empower us to work to improve care for existing and future survivors.

One bill is particularly important to make sure that future stroke survivors benefit from our experiences. House Bill 4699, the Primary Stroke Center Designation Act, is currently pending before the Illinois General Assembly. This bill will improve the care and treatment for future stroke patients by ensuring that whenever possible, suspected stroke patients will be taken to the hospital best equipped to ensure rapid diagnosis and treatment. Experts agree that time is of the essence when dealing with a stroke. "Time Loss is Brain Loss," says the American Stroke Association.

Fortunately, today's medical advancements in stroke diagnosis and treatment have given doctors some exciting new stroke interventions. Unfortunately, these treatments are effective only in the first few hours after onset of symptoms. These amazing techniques, which were not even available when we got sick, can actually reverse the devastating effects of strokes!

By enacting HB 4699, our officials can ensure that future stroke patients will get better treatment, saving lives and preventing misery caused by stroke. Many people who don't even know it yet will benefit for years to come.

We urge everyone to support HB 4699!

Mickey Clancy and Yvonne Stovall
Co-founders and Co-chairs, Stroke Survivors Empowering Each Other

Bill Designating Women's Heart Disease Awareness Month Passes Legislature!

I am happy to report that House Bill 5596, designating each February as Women's Heart Disease Awareness Month in Illinois, has passed both houses of the Illinois General Assembly and will soon be headed to the Governor’s desk for his approval!

This legislation is important because, if enacted into law, it will increase our opportunities to get the Go Red For Women message out, to encourage women to join the GRFW movement and to remind everyone to pay attention to the cardiovascular health of the women in their lives. This bill is an outgrowth of a terrific GRFW Valentine’s Day program we had at the Capitol this year and I want to thank all of the volunteers and colleagues who helped execute that event. This is a nice example of integration in action in the Midwest Affiliate!

While this is not controversial legislation, the atmosphere in Springfield is very contentious due to serious differences between key legislative players. So, we need to continue to speak out to ensure that this bill doesn’t fall through the cracks on its way to becoming law…. In the coming weeks we will be sending out a You’re The Cure! action alert asking you to thank legislators who voted for the bill and another alert asking you to urge the Governor to sign the bill into law.

As you can see, when you take action on our alerts, your legislators listen. YOUR CLICKS COUNT! Thank you everyone for your ongoing support!