Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the American Cancer Society’s 31st Annual Great American Smokeout – a day when smokers across the nation mark the event by cutting back, forsaking cigarettes for the day, or perhaps quitting altogether.
I’m proud that in my Congressional district, all the hospitals – which already prohibit smoking indoors – will today be extending their smoke-free zones and prohibit the use of tobacco products anywhere on their campuses. This includes outside entrances, walkways, parking lots and garages. Patients, visitors, and hospital employees are covered by this policy. These medical institutions, which treat many diseases that result from use of tobacco products, are taking a critical step that will lead to patients, visitors, and staff reducing and hopefully quitting the use of tobacco products. By taking this action, the hospitals in my community will lead by example in our efforts to reduce tobacco use.
The toll of tobacco use in America is devastating, with 440,000 people dying prematurely each year from tobacco use. Tobacco use is the cause of at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 87 percent of lung cancer deaths. Secondhand smoke is a major health hazard – 3,000 otherwise healthy nonsmokers nationwide will die of lung cancer annually because of their exposure to secondhand smoke.
In Maryland, there will be more than 4,000 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed this year and there will be nearly 3,000 lung cancer deaths. In addition to the thousands of lives lost to diseases caused by tobacco products, the annual direct and indirect health care costs in the U.S. caused by tobacco use is approximately $194 billion.
As people across the country begin to attempt to conquer tobacco addiction on this Great American Smokeout day, Congress must continue to do its part in reducing the addiction to tobacco. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor and pass H.R. 1108, the Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act. This bill would grant the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products and the marketing of those products, which the tobacco industry has shamelessly marketed to our nation’s youth to create lifetime smokers and consumers of their deadly products.
Madam Speaker, I applaud the hospitals in my Congressional district for becoming smoke-free zones and commend the American Cancer Society for their efforts in reducing America’s addiction to tobacco products.