Obama signs tobacco bill into law amid personal struggle with smoking

WASHINGTON-Citing his own experience as a teenage smoker, President Obama on Monday predicted a tough new law giving the government expanded authority to crack down on cigarette marketers will help young people make the choice not to take up the habit he has struggled with for years.As he signed the measure into law in a Rose Garden ceremony this afternoon, Obama said it would help stem the "constant and insidious barrage of advertising" that every year draws millions of teenagers into a lifelong struggle to quit.

"I know," Obama said. "I was one of those teenagers, and so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it's been with you for a long time." The new law gives sweeping power to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products. And it directly bans tobacco companies from using youth-oriented gimmicks like adding candy, fruit and spice flavors to cigarettes or using tobacco product logos and brand names in sponsoring athletic and entertainment events.

Nearly a quarter of high school students in the U.S. smoke cigarettes, according to the National Institutes of Health. And people who start smoking before the age of 21 have the hardest time quitting, the agency reports. About 30 percent of youth smokers will die early from a smoking-related disease.

Flanked by lawmakers who have fought tobacco companies for years, Obama declared his signature on the bill represented a significant defeat for those who tried to hook young customers.

"Kids today don't just start smoking for no reason," Obama said. "They're aggressively targeted as customers by the tobacco industry. They're exposed to a constant and insidious barrage of advertising where they live, where they learn and where they play." Fifteen years after tobacco CEOs denied before Congress that nicotine was addictive or that they marketed to children, Obama said, "Their campaign has finally failed." Standing behind the president for the signing was Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who first summoned those CEOs to testify.

"Today," said Obama, "change has come to Washington."

For Obama personally, change is more elusive. He gave up cigarettes as part of a deal with his wife, Michelle Obama, who wanted him to quit before he took on the rigors of a presidential campaign. He swore off cigarettes and started chewing Nicorette gum.

In recent weeks, though, aides to the president have tacitly acknowledged the president's nicotine habit isn't a thing of the past.

On Monday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said he hasn't "probed" the president on the question.

"As he has told me," Gibbs said, "it's something that he continues to struggle with . . . like millions of Americans have." The new law creates a Center for Tobacco Products to oversee the science-based regulation in the United States. By October 2009, it will completely prohibit cigarettes that have candy, fruit, and spice flavors as their main flavors.

The bill also requires that tobacco companies:

-Fully disclose ingredients and additives. They will also have to send information to the FDA about the nicotine content of their products and the health consequences of using them.

-Stop targeting youth with their marketing campaigns. They won't be able to sell or give away clothing and other items with their logos, or distribute free samples of cigarettes.

-Quit using terms such as "light," "low" and "mild" to market their products, labels that may suggest the individual product carries lower health risks.

-Include warning labels that dominate the front and rear panels of their packaging. The FDA will develop regulations requiring particular graphics on labels to warn of the health risks of smoking.

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(c) 2009, Tribune Washington Bureau.