Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 100 Part 4.djvu/400

 100 STAT. 3207-121

Reports.

PUBLIC LAW 99-570—OCT. 27, 1986

(2) alcohol abuse costs the American economy nearly $120,000,000,000 per year, including increased medical expenses and decreased productivity; (3) in 1984, 53 percent of the traffic fatalities in the United States, accounting for more than 23,500 deaths, were related to the consumption of alcohol; (4) over 12,000,000 American adults have one or more symptoms of alcoholism, and this represents an 8.2 percent increase in problem drinking since 1980; (5) in 1984, almost 3,300,000 individuals between the ages of 14 and 17 experienced serious problems at home, in school, or with the law because of alcohol consumption; (6) fetal alcohol syndrome is the third leading cause of birth defects, and is the only preventable cause of birth defects among the top three causes; (7) nearly 5,000 babies per year are born with birth defects related to fetal alcohol s3nidrome; (8) the statistics cited in the preceding paragraphs of this subsection indicate that many Americans are not aware of the adverse effects that the abuse of alcoholic beverages may have on health; (9) it is necessary to undertake a serious national effort to educate the American people of the serious consequences of alcohol abuse; and (10) carefully drafted warning labels on the containers of alcoholic beverages concerning serious health consequences resulting from the abuse of alcohol may assist in providing such education. (b) Therefore, it is the sense of the Senate that— (1) the Public Health Service should focus attention on the problem of educating the American people on the serious health consequences of alcohol abuse; (2) the Public Health Service should review available knowledge and conduct studies to assess the most effective means of providing such education, including an assessment of the potential educational impact of health warning labels on the containers of alcoholic beverages; and (3) the Public Health Service should transmit a report to the Congress within 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act concerning any activities described in paragraph (2) which have been undertaken, and should include in such report any findings respecting the impact and potential benefits of displaying health warnings on the containers of alcoholic beverages and recommendations for specific language for such labels. SEC. 4018. EFFORTS OF THE ENTERTAINMENT AND WRITTEN MEDIA INDUSTRY.

It is the sense of Congress that— (1) whereas illegal drug and alcohol consumption and the trafficking in those illegal drugs and alcohol is a major problem in the United States, (2) whereas the problem of alcohol abuse is particularly prevalent among and harmful to the Nation's young people, and (3) whereas the values and mores portrayed in various forms of commercially produced entertainment have a profound effect on the attitudes of yoimg people in this country,

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