This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.
Date: Thursday, Jan. 18, 1996 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Victor Zonana (202) 690-6343
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today issued a final rule designed to ensure that states and territories adopt and enforce laws prohibiting the sale or distribution of tobacco products to children.
The rule provides guidance to the states on how to comply with the Synar Amendment, named for its author, the late Mike Synar, former Congressman from Oklahoma. Synar died of brain cancer Jan. 9. The amendment was enacted in 1992 as part of the Public Health Service Act and requires states to have and to enforce laws banning the sale and distribution of tobacco products to people under 18.
While all states currently have such laws, enforcement has been inconsistent; in 1991, an estimated 255 million cigarette packs were sold illegally to minors, according to the American Journal of Public Health. And in the 1995 Monitoring the Future Survey released last month, more than 90 percent of high school tenth graders surveyed said it was "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain cigarettes.
"The Synar regulation is an important part of the Clinton Administration's overall effort to help parents protect their children from the dangers of tobacco," said HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala.
On August 10, President Clinton announced proposals by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), another HHS agency, designed to reduce the access and appeal of tobacco products to young people. The FDA is currently reviewing public comments it received on its proposed regulations.
"These two initiatives would complement one another, and are intended to limit the access and appeal of tobacco products to young people," Shalala said.
Together, Shalala said, the Synar regulation and the proposed FDA regulations would provide a means to achieve President Clinton's goal of reducing the use of tobacco products by young people 50 percent within seven years.
The Synar regulation -- formally titled "Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grants: Sale or Distribution of Tobacco Products to Individuals Under 18 Years of Age" -- requires states and territories to enforce their youth access laws through such methods as random spot checks of retail establishments. It would also require states to designate an office or agency for coordinating compliance activities.
States would be required to file annual progress reports and could suffer financial penalties through reductions in substance-abuse block grants for failing to achieve agreed-upon goals.
"States should have broad flexibility in achieving our common goal of preventing youth addiction to tobacco products, but we have to have effective enforcement," Nelba Chavez, SAMHSA's administrator, said.
"Despite the existence of laws barring the sale of tobacco to minors in all 50 states, enforcement has been uneven," Chavez continued.
"Moreover," added Shalala, "the problem of teen smoking is getting worse."
Last month, the 1995 Monitoring the Future Survey reported continued large increases in smoking among 8th, 10th and 12th graders.
Among 10th graders, 27.9 percent had smoked within 30 days of the survey, up from 25.4 percent a year earlier, and 16.3 percent smoked every day, compared to 14.6 percent a year earlier.
Among 12th graders, fully 33.5 percent had smoked within 30 days of the survey, up from 31.2 percent in 1994. Daily smoking among 12th graders increased to 21.6 percent from 19.4 percent.
And among the youngest members of the survey -- eighth graders who may be as young as 13 -- daily cigarette use jumped to 9.3 percent in 1995 from 7.2 percent in 1991, while past-month smoking among eighth graders soared to 19.1 percent from 14.3 percent in 1991.
"This four-year trend of increased smoking among American youth, if not reversed, will cost this country thousands of precious lives and billions of dollars in health costs," Shalala warned.
Shalala pointed to another worrisome finding in the Monitoring the Future survey. "Over 90 percent of tenth graders and 76 percent of eighth graders said it was fairly or very easy to get cigarettes," she said.
About 3,000 young people under the age of 18 become regular smokers every day and nearly 1,000 of them will eventually die of tobacco-related illnesses.