KENNEDY SUPPORTS PRESIDENT’S CANCER PANEL RECOMMENDATIONS

WASHINGTON, DC— Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education,Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement today, strongly supportingthe recommendations by the President’s Cancer Panel for effective national action to reducethe danger of tobacco. “The recommendations eloquently reaffirm what is widely recognized throughout the publichealth community; that giving the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulatetobacco products is the most important step Congress can take to reduce smoking and theimmense toll of illness and death it causes. It is absolutely essential to reduce smoking,especially among the nation’s youth. Legislation to do so has the support of a broad bipartisan majority in Congress. It wasrecently approved by the Senate Health Committee, and is likely to be acted on by the fullSenate this fall. This legislation would enact the recommendations of the President’s CancerPanel to prevent tobacco advertising targeted at children, ban the sale of tobacco products tominors, prohibit unsubstantiated health claims by the tobacco industry that mislead the publicabout the dangers of smoking, help smokers overcome their addictions, and require tobaccoproducts to be less toxic and less addictive for those who continue to use them. Enacting thisbill this year is the right thing to do, particularly for America’s children.” ###