Teenage smoking is a national epidemic with profound medical consequences.
Every day 3,000 children start to smoke. Nearly 1,000 of these kids will become addicted to nicotine and eventually die from lung cancer, heart disease or other illnesses caused by smoking. Last week, the President of the United States addressed the magnitude of this public health crisis and proposed regulations to curb teen-age smoking. The President correctly identified tobacco advertising in magazines read by large numbers of children as one of the principal factors in teen-age smoking. As these kids read about the lives and achievements of their sports heros, they are literally bombarded by advertising promoting the virtues of smoking.