Protecting Kids from Tobacco and E-Cigarette Advertisements
Last week, the Senate leadership and House Democrats released a report identifying tobacco and e-cigarette ads and images in magazines targeting teen readers. According to the report, "tobacco companies continue to glamorize smoking in advertisements in magazines with large youth readership" and that "magazines frequently contain alluring images of smokers in their editorial content." These advertisements and images appeared most frequently in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, US Weekly, People and Time. (Read the report).
Along with the report, the members of Congress wrote to the magazine publishers urging them to act to help reduce teen tobacco use: "We hope you will reconsider your policies and voluntarily act to reduce cigarette, e-cigarette, and other tobacco product advertising and cut the number of editorial and news images of cigarette, e-cigarette, and other tobacco product in your policies. Eliminating them will help reduce teen smoking, which is a goal we should all share." (Read the letters).
Members of Congress have also introduced bills related to the selling and marketing of cigarettes and e-cigs to young people. Weigh in:
- HR 4325: Protecting Children from Electronic Cigarette Advertising Act – (And S 2047 in the Senate.) Would "prohibit the marketing of e-cigarettes to children and teens," according to bill sponsors. Would permit the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to determine what constitutes marketing e-cigarettes to children, and would allow the FTC to work with states attorneys general to enforce the ban.
- HR 5010: Stop Selling and Marketing to Our Kids ECigarettes (SMOKE) Act – Would "extend the same Food and Drug Administration regulations of tobacco products to electronic cigarettes and address gaps in the current FDA proposal," according to bill sponsors.
- HR 5486: Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act – Would require child safety packaging for liquid nicotine containers. Directs the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to require safer, child-resistant packaging for liquid nicotine products within one year of passage, according to bill sponsors.
Photo credit: Bruno Mars Images from Rolling Stone Magazine (May 9, 2013)
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