About 420,000 deaths a year are blamed on smoking. But even those numbers can start to sound like so much noise when repeated again and again, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop admitted this week. It's just as likely that people have heard the tobacco industry's ads against the bill, which say it will cost thousands of jobs and bring higher prices and a black market. As he pushed last week for the Senate to wrap up work on the tobacco bill he sponsored, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona acknowledged that many voters have not tuned in. But failing to act would be wrong, he said.
Crime is important.
Drugs are important. Education is of critical importance. Parents say they don't want youth smoking ignored. On the contrary, non-smokers and smokers alike said they have lectured their children on the dangers of smoking, and several said they support measures to tackle the problem. But if they and their children don't smoke, many parents don't think the issue affects them.