answer is no; Congress is doing a better job than you would want them to do in that area.

Mr. JAMES JONES. Mr. Pease.

Mr. PEASE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I appreciate the testimony of our witness.

Picking up where Mr. Rangel left off, he is probably referring to the ads that we see from the liquor industry, paid ads in magazines. and on television urging people to use moderation. You have not done anything of that sort; your institute has not done anything of that sort for tobacco?

Mr. KORNEGAY. No, sir; not in the field of moderation. Here is the problem, and what I was alluding to when I replied to Mr. Rangel by saying you cannot squarely compare the whiskey problem with the tobacco problem. Moderation, what is moderation? The critics of tobacco say that one cigarette is one too many. So you can smoke 5 cigarettes or 10-I say this as a smoker-10 cigarettes or a whole pack of cigarettes in a given period, and it doesn't change your conduct. It doesn't cause you to do things that you would not have done had you not smoked a cigarette. Cigarettes do not alter the mind.

So the problem here is that there is no definite line that you can draw with the use of cigarettes as you can with the use of alcohol where you move from a state of sobriety into a state of intoxication.

Mr. PEASE. Does it make any difference in terms of the danger to a person's health, the likelihood of contracting cancer, whether a person smokes 10 cigarettes a day or 3 packs a day?

Mr. KORNEGAY. Not being a scientist, Mr. Pease, I could not give you a scientific answer to it.

Mr. PEASE. Surely you have commissioned studies like that, though.

Mr. KORNEGAY. I can simply tell you that you find studies, literally scores or hundreds of them, and they are all over the lot. Some of them would indicate that if you smoke at a certain level, say 10 cigarettes a day, that you are in better general health than the nonsmoker. There are all sorts of comparisons and inconsistency runs through the studies.

Mr. PEASE. So you have been sort of paralyzed by this inconsistency and are not doing anything by way of advertising?

Mr. KORNEGAY. I am sorry; I didn't hear that.

Mr. PEASE. You have been paralyzed by this inconsistency in the studies into not doing anything by way of advertising?

Mr. KORNEGAY. No, sir; I have mentioned the most recent program to Mr. Rangel, where we are coordinating with the school people. We have, through the years run advertising campaigns on discouraging youth, young people, children, kids, however you want to term it, from smoking.

Mr. PEASE. Can you supply some of those advertisements for the record?

Mr. KORNEGAY. I would be delighted to.
[The following was subsequently received:]

THE TOBACCO INSTITUTE,
Washington, DC, July 22, 1985.

Hon. DANIEL D. ROSTENKOWSKI,

Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: During my testimony on June 20 at the Ways and Means Committee hearing to determine the fate of the sunset provision of the temporary eight-cent federal cigarette excise tax, questions were raised about whether the tobacco industry has tried to discourage smoking by young people. I would like to expand on the brief response I made at that time.

The cigarette industry shares the concern of Members of the Committee. A year ago, in cooperation with the National Association of State Boards of Education, we began a project to actively discourage youngsters from smoking.

Our approach is to deal with "peer pressure" by helping parents reestablish their influence over their teenagers. I am enclosing a booklet, "Helping Youth Decide", which has been made available free to parents, through a major national advertising campaign and through many civic, educational and youth-oriented groups.

To date, nearly 340,000 copies of the booklet-including 14,805 in the state of Illinois-have been distributed to parents, educators and community leaders. Reactions have been overwhelmingly favorable.

For example, the principal of Leslie Elementary School in Chicago wrote she was sure both parents and students would benefit from "Helping Youth Decide," and asked that 120 copies be sent to the school. The Kiwanis Unit of the Chicago Boys Club requested copies for all professional staff working with youngsters and more for direct distribution to parents.

Downstate, a psychology professor at Eastern Illinois University sent his congratulations on "a very fine product. . . Rarely have I seen a booklet that is so well done."

A summary of other representative comments is enclosed for your review. Earlier in the 1980s, The Tobacco Institute advertised the cigarette companies' view on the youth smoking question in a major national magazine series. Reprints are enclosed.

As a further example of our concern, I am enclosing a copy of the Code of Cigarette Sampling Practices adopted and very strictly adhered to by the manufacturers in brand promotion activities. It is another assurance, directly in control of the manufacturers themselves, against distribution of cigarettes to young people.

It is my strong belief that our industry has demonstrated an abiding commitment to the public interest in this matter of youth smoking. I will welcome your further questions or comments on this matter.

Sincerely,

HORACE R. KORNEGAY.

The cigarette industry does not want youngsters as customers. It does not want them to smoke.

That has been our policy for many years, a policy that has guided and will continue to guide our industry's marketing, promotion and advertising practices. The unique appeal to young people of radio and television determined the industry's volunteering in 1969 to abandon broadcast advertising. Our policy against youth smoking underlies our voluntary industry codes on sampling and advertising.

A new industry program takes that policy one step further. Where we have in the past avoided encouraging youngsters to smoke, in the initiative launched last year we are actively discouraging youth smoking.

How does one dissuade young people from experimenting or following their peers? It is question to which answers have been provided-by a team of behavioral experts and psychologists assembled by the Nation Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE).

Since last September, the industry and NASBE have in partnership offered the parents of young teenagers a free, illustrated guidebook called "Helping Youth Decide."

Using "Helping Youth Decide" is not painless, easy of foolproof-for parents or their children. But, educators tell us, it presents an intelligent approach for the family that wants better, more workable lines of communication. That, guidance professionals tell us, results in youngsters consulting with parents, trusting adult advice and learning to reach wise conclusions on their own.

The industry hopes that one of those decisions will be not to smoke. Although only nine months' experience with the program tells us it's too soon to see its full effects, we are encouraged that government data released in February indicate that

the percentage of high school seniors who smoke dropped more than 10 percent in 1984 after several level years and is down more than one-third since 1977.

We are also pleased that we have now had requests for more than a third of a million copies of the free booklets. The numbers surpass our fondest hopes at the start of the program in September 1984. It also augurs well for an even larger reduction in smoking among adolescents and pre-adolescents as parents and their teenagers build a new mutual trust, enabling parents to better guide their young people in both large and small decisions.

Educators, guidance professionals and psychologists have been enthusiastic in their support of "Helping Youth Decide." Thousands, in fact, have helped us put copies into the hands of parents who might have missed our national advertising. "The material is presented in such a manner as to allow parents to quickly understand the contents," a Cincinnati principal wrote the Institute. "I encourage you to continue supporting programs that strengthen familial relationships."

A junior high principal in El Dorado, Ark., told NASBE how pleased he was to receive a copy in a mailing from the National Association of Secondary School Principals. "It was exactly what I've been looking for when dealing with parents," he

wrote.

The Kiwanis Unit of the Chicago Boys Club asked the Institute for 500 copies, said it would be "very useful to our professional staff across our agency as well as being distributed directly to some of the parents of our members."

We hope, of course, that parents will use the booklet to dissuade their youngsters from smoking. We are happy to have provided more than 340,000 copies already, mostly in orders from individual mothers and fathers. And we are ready to send free copies to any parent who requests them, no matter what the purpose.

We will shortly have a Spanish language version available to reach a still broader parental audience. NASBE specialists are now working on a guidebook to teach use of "Helping Youth Decide" in meetings and in parenting classes. A set of conversation starter cards, also in the works, will enhance the booklet's application in the family.

Enclosed, for the Committee's record, are a copy of "Helping Youth Decide," a folder about the booklet and copies of industry advertisements setting forth our longtime position against youth smoking.

T

he 600 citizen-volunteer members of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) provide policymaking leadership to public education in the United States. Their efforts are designed to assure quality education to

every child in every classroom in the states and territories. NASBE believes that sound communication and decision-making skills are critical aspects of every child's journey toward informed, responsible adulthood. In working as education leaders, state board members recognize that a partnership exists among schools, parents and the communities. This publication is an example of two of these, the education and business communities, reaching out to the third, parents. We hope that parents who use this guide will find it useful in creating effective parent-child communication and in helping children to learn to make sound decisions.

July 1984

Phyllis Blaunstein
Executive Director

National Association of
State Boards of Education

This publication of the National Association of State Boards of Education was made possible by The Tobacco Institute, Washington, D.C.

The Tobacco Institute is an association of cigarette manufacturers who—as a matter of longtime policy and practice-believe that smoking is an adult custom. Simply put: The people who make cigarettes do not want young people smoking them. It is The Tobacco Institute's hope that this booklet will help parents deal with the full range of decisions adolescents face today.