Statement
of Diana Zuckerman, President
National
Center for Policy Research (CPR) for Women & Families
Regarding the Hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
on the Federal Tobacco Lawsuit
September 5, 2001
Smoking is a woman’s issue and it is a family issue. Those of us who work to improve programs and policies that affect women and families must turn our attention to smoking as the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States. The most recent research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on August 16, indicates that cigarettes are still advertised in dozens of magazines read by millions of children between 14-18 years old. These include youth-oriented magazines such as Mademoiselle, Rolling Stone, and Hot Rod, as well as magazines that are aimed at adults but attract many young readers, such as Glamour, Ebony, Family Circle, Cosmopolitan, and Woman’s Day.
The Surgeon General’s recent report on smoking and women concluded that there has been a 600% increase in women’s death rates from lung cancer since 1950 and that those deaths are a direct result of a smoking addiction that starts in childhood. Smoking is a habit that almost always begins in youth, usually before age 16. And smoking is not an equal opportunity bad habit. The Surgeon General points out that girls are more easily addicted to nicotine than boys and female smokers are more likely to die of lung cancer than are males who smoke the same number of cigarettes. And a great deal of advertising is aimed at persuading girls that smoking is sexy, fun, and a way to show their independence.
We
thank Sen. Durbin for holding this hearing and call on the U.S. Congress
to do all it can to ensure that tobacco companies are held accountable
for their harmful marketing practices, including the targeting of children.
Every day, 3,000 kids become regular smokers, partly as a result of these
very persuasive ads. That is why today’s hearing is so essential, and
why the government’s law suit is so important to women and families across
the country. It is long past time to show the tobacco companies that these
practices will not be tolerated.
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