Currently, most Americans eat a variety of foods with niacin in them. Pellagra is simply not a threat to our society. Mr. Monaghan was right when he stated that one in eight smokers experiences lung cancer. However, this fact does not minimize the serious overall health and economic burden that tobacco use places on our community and throughout the world. Tobacco use is the leading cause of heart disease, emphysema and stroke in the United States.
Tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death.
These are the facts. Over the last 50 years, we have come too close to mistakes and accidents as a result of being on hair-trigger alert. Today the threat is compounded by the deteriorating condition of Russia's early-warning system, which could result in further false signals. As it stands, the decision-making time is a mere 15 to 20 minutes. We cannot let this stand as the time allotted to decide the fate of the entire world.