Public Law 98–154

Joint Resolution

To designate the month of November 1983 as “National Christmas Seal Month”.

Whereas chronic diseases of the lung afflict well over seventeen million Americans, cause more than two hundred thousand deaths annually, at a cost to the Nation of more than $48.8 billion each year in lost wages, productivity, and in direct costs of medical care;

Whereas leading the fight in the voluntary sector to prevent illness, disability, and death from lung disease is the American Lung Association—the Christmas Seal People—a nonprofit public health organization supported by individual contributions to Christmas Seals and other donations;

Whereas chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases have been among the fastest rising causes of death—an 87 per centum increase in the past ten years. Almost seven million Americans, including two million two hundred and fifty thousand children, suffer from asthma;

Whereas, two and one-half million people have emphysema, while seven million eight hundred thousand suffer from chronic bronchitis. And it is expected that lung cancer will surpass breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among American women during this decade;

Whereas the American Lung Association, the Nation’s first national voluntary public health organization, was founded in 1904 as the National Tuberculosis Association to combat TB when this lung disease was known to nearly every American family and one in seven deaths resulted from tuberculosis. Beginning in 1907, Christmas Seals were used to raise funds through private contributions to provide education to Americans about the disease;

Whereas, in its early years, the National Tuberculosis Association pioneered in school programs aimed at motivating our young people to establish healthful living patterns. That tradition remains strong as the American Lung Association, through its community Lung Associations, helps educate the public, patients, and their families about lung diseases; sponsors community action programs for good lung health; underwrites medical research; supports education for physicians and other health care workers; wages vigorous campaigns against cigarette smoking and air pollution. The primary source of funding for more than seventy years has been Christmas Seals. This year, Christmas Seals will be in sixty million homes. Tuberculosis has been subdued considerably, but not eradicated in the one hundred and two years since the discovery of the tubercle bacillus by Doctor Robert Koch. The disease is still responsible for one in one thousand deaths—many among children. The American Lung Association continues to work with Congress to better distribute resources to control tuberculosis and work toward its eradication;

Whereas the American Lung Association works with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a major component of the National Institutes of Health, to support research, training, and demonstration programs relevant to the lung, as well as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, in addition to the Tuberculosis Program of the Centers for Disease Control, the Office of Smoking and Health, and the Office of Health Promotion; and

Whereas the American Lung Association continues to cooperate with Federal agencies to bring about a decrease in the serious problem of lung disease, a mission to which its volunteers and staff are committed: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Approved November 16, 1983.