Two tobacco giants, Philip Morris and the United States Tobacco Company, reacted to the President s remarks last summer by proposing their own curb on advertising that would avoid FDA regulation. But in May, the White House said the proposal didn t go far enough. Today, President Clinton added to the pressure on the industry. Today we are taking direct action to protect our children from tobacco, and especially the advertising that hooks children on a product. If it s immaterial, let s just pull it all off and see what happens to us.
Cigarette smoking is the most significant public health problem facing our people.
More Americans die every year from smoking-related diseases than from AIDS, car accidents, murders, suicides, and fires combined. The human cost doesn t begin to calculate the economic cost. The thing that galvanized the legal claims of the attorney general, the absolutely staggering burdens on the American health care system and on our economy in general. But, make no mistake about it, the human cost is by far the most important issue. We have carefully considered the evidence.