What's the Truth?

What's the Truth?

"Low tar." "Light." "Ultra light." For decades, the tobacco industry has used these terms to deceive smokers into believing that "safer" cigarettes are not as risky as full strength cigarettes. This is not the truth. Many smokers mistakenly believe that cigarettes identified with health descriptors cause fewer health problems than other cigarettes.

Stubbing out a cigaretteA federal judge recently ordered strict new limitations on tobacco marketing after ruling that cigarette makers were part of a decades-old conspiracy in which Big Tobacco deceived the public about the dangers of smoking. Studies show that 85 percent of smokers use "safer" cigarettes. However, what many fail to realize is that they are hooked on a certain level of nicotine and crave a certain daily dose. If a light cigarette provides a smaller dose in each puff, smokers will make up the difference by taking more puffs, inhaling more deeply or by just smoking more cigarettes. Studies have shown that believed they had cut out.

In order to test the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) uses a smoking machine to artificially inhale a cigarette and then report its tar rating. The Commissioner of the FTC, Timothy Muris, calls the tar rating system "broken," and has said that "cigarette tar and nicotine ratings can't predict the amount of tar and nicotine you get from any particular cigarette."

That's why I have joined with Senator Frank Lautenberg to introduce the Truth in Cigarette Labeling Act. I believe the stark dangers of smoking should not be veiled by deceptive or false phrasing. For far too long the American public has been hoodwinked about the risks of tobacco and nicotine use. We want to put an end to this practice. The legislation will prohibit tobacco companies from using misleading descriptors like "light," "low" and "mild" in marketing cigarettes and would ban the use of the data derived from the Federal Trade Commission test used to determine tar and nicotine levels

At a time when 20 percent of high school students in Iowa smoke and 5,500 kids become regular smokers annually, we have to make every effort to undo Big Tobacco's damage. Every year, tobacco use kills 4,400 residents and costs the state $937 million in health care bills. Nationally, about 22 percent of high school students smoke and tobacco costs the country more than $89 billion in health care bills a year. We can no longer tolerate business as usual when it comes to our health and tobacco.

http://harkin.senate.gov/