Will Surgeon General Nominee Protect Kids or Corporations?

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert			April 5, 2002

Ralph Nader, Commercial Alert, health professionals and child advocates
sent a letter today to Dr. Richard H. Carmona, the U.S. Surgeon General
nominee, inquiring of his views on child health issues related to media
violence, television, alcohol, tobacco, junk food and in-school
advertising.  The letter follows.

Dear Dr. Carmona:

Congratulations on your nomination to be the next Surgeon General of the
United States.  

Protecting the health of our nation's children must be a top priority
for every Surgeon General.  Parents and children across the country need
their Surgeon General to be courageous enough to promote children's
health, even if it conflicts with the interests of industries with
considerable political power.

Before the Senate confirmation process begins, we wish to get a sense of
how you would handle some of these child health issues.

Television & media violence. A recent study by Jeffrey Johnson of
Columbia University found a link between television viewing during
adolescence and adulthood, and aggressive acts, including violent crime,
committed later in life. In a joint statement, The American
Psychological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American
Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, American Medical Association,
American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Psychiatric
Association have written that "well over 1000 studies...point
overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and
aggressive behavior in some children."

	1.  Do you agree that the amount of violent entertainment that children
watch is a serious problem?

	2. Do you agree with the American Academy of Pediatrics that parents
should "avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years"?

	3. Will you make it a high priority during your tenure to urge parents
to reduce the amount of television that children watch?

Alcohol.  As you know, alcohol is a major cause of death among
teenagers, contributing to motor vehicle crashes, other injuries,
suicide, date rape, and family, school and other problems. Following
intense public pressure, NBC recently backed off its plan to broadcast
liquor advertisements.

	4. Do you oppose the broadcasting of liquor advertisements on
television or cable TV?

Tobacco. Each day, about three thousand children become smokers in the
United States.  About one-third of them will have their lives cut short
from tobacco-related illness.

	5. Do you support the Justice Department's current civil lawsuit
against the tobacco industry?

	6. Do you support increasing the federal tax on cigarettes?

	7. What will you do to reduce the amount of tobacco advertising and
marketing that targets children and teenagers in the United States?

Junk food and soda pop.  Children are suffering from skyrocketing levels
of obesity and type 2 diabetes.  Under the compulsory education laws,
children are required to attend school.  But increasingly, our nation's
public schools have been converted into marketing showcases for
high-calorie junk food and soda pop.  For example, Primedia's Channel
One shows a parade of ads for soda pop and junk food to eight million
students each school day.

	8. Will you encourage our nation's public schools not to market junk
food and soda pop to children, and to get rid of Primedia's Channel One?

Sincerely,

Enola Aird, Director, The Motherhood Project, Institute for American
Values
Craig A. Anderson, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology,
Iowa State University
Karl Anderson, MD, Professor, Depts. of Preventive Medicine and
Community Health, Internal Medicine, and Pharmacology and Toxicology,
Univ. of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston
Brita Butler-Wall, PhD, Executive Director, Citizens' Campaign for
Commercial-Free Schools
Bettye M. Caldwell, PhD, Past President, National Association for the
Education of Young Children
Nancy Carlsson-Paige, EdD, Professor of Education, Lesley University
Donald R. Davis, PhD, Research Associate in Nutrition, Biochemical
Institute, University of Texas
Cathey E. Falvo, MD, MPH, Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics,
New York Medical College; Program Director, International & Public
Health, School of Public Health, NYMC
Gilbert L. Fuld, MD, former member, Board of Directors, American Academy
of Pediatrics
Joan Gussow, EdD, M. S. Rose Professor Emeritus, Nutrition and
Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Michael F. Jacobson, PhD, Executive Director, Center for Science in the
Public Interest
Sut Jhally, PhD, Founder and Executive Director, The Media Education
Foundation
Carden Johnston, MD, FAAP, FACEP, FRCP, Chair, Commercialism in the
Classroom Task Force, Alabama Chapter American Academy of Pediatrics
Timothy J. Kasser, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Knox College
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, Associate Clinical Professor of Public
Health & Medicine,
Yale University School of Medicine; Director, Yale Prevention Research
Center
Joe Kelly, Executive Director, Dads and Daughters
Rebecca T. Kirkland, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics, Chief of Academic
General Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine
Ronald M. Krauss, MD, Adjunct Professor of Nutritional Sciences and
Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley
Velma LaPoint, PhD, Associate Professor of Human Development, Howard
University
Diane Levin, PhD, Professor of Education, Wheelock College
Jane Levine, EdD, Founder, Kids Can Make A Difference
Dana Mack, author, The Assault on Parenthood
JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH, Chief of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and
Women's Hospital; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Bob McCannon, Executive Director, New Mexico Media Literacy Project
William J. McCarthy, PhD, Adj. Associate Professor of Psychology, UCLA
Robert McChesney, PhD, Research Associate Professor, U. of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; author, Rich Media, Poor Democracy
Jim Metrock, President, Obligation, Inc.
Mark Crispin Miller, PhD, Professor of Media Ecology, New York
University
Diane M. Morrison, PhD, Research Professor & Associate Dean for
Research, University of Washington School of Social Work
Robert K. Musil, PhD, MPH, Executive Director and CEO, Physicians for
Social Responsibility; Adjunct Professor, School of International
Service, American University
Ralph Nader
Peggy O'Mara, Editor and Publisher, Mothering Magazine
Alvin F. Poussaint, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School;
Director, Media Center of the Judge Baker Children's Center
Michael Rich, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard
Medical School
Gary Ruskin, Executive Director, Commercial Alert
Donald L. Shifrin, MD, FAAP, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics,
University of Washington School of Medicine
Victor Strasburger, MD, Professor & Chief, Division of Adolescent
Medicine, University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Steven Sussman, PhD, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Psychology,
University of Southern California
Frank Vespe, Executive Director, TV-Turnoff Network
Patience H. White, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, George
Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Children's
National Medical Center 
Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH, Chair, Department of Nutrition, Harvard
School of Public Health
Margo N. Woods, DSc, Associate Professor of Community Health, Tufts
University School of Medicine

<-----letter ends here------>

A copy of the letter is available in .pdf format at
<http://www.commercialalert.org/releases/carmona.pdf>.

BACKGROUND:
For more information on the Bush Administration's record of helping
corporations not children, see "Bush's War on Children," by Jonathan
Rowe and Gary Ruskin <http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=11134>.

Commercial Alert's mission is to keep the commercial culture within its
proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting
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-- 
Gary Ruskin | gary@commercialalert.org 
Commercial Alert | http://www.commercialalert.org/
Congressional Accountability Project | http://www.congressproject.org/
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