you'll see are graphic and may be upsetting to some viewers. >> thank you for joining us today. i'm delighted to have the chance to share the stage with two of our great health leaders and health and human services dr. regina benjamin, surgeon general and dr. tom friedman who heads the centers for disease control and i want to thank the individuals who are here, some of whom you're going to hear from the former smokers, whose real life story inspires this effort and outrage. we're here today to announce the latest step this administration is taking in our fight against the number one cause of preventable death in america. we have a new ad campaign that we're launching that will feature some of the most moving and attention grabbing stories about smoking's devastating

effects. these stories really haven't ever been seen in popular media. and we expect it will lead to more than half a million smokers seeking out the resources they need to quit. now, when we look back on just a few decades to the days of smoking on airplanes and elevators, it can be easy to focus on how far we've come since then. it can be easy to be lulled into a sense of complacency and start to think tobacco use is a problem that will go away on its own. but unfortunately we know better. and the numbers actually tell a very different story. tobacco in this country continues to kill 443,000 -- 443,000 americans of year. and for every person who dies from smoking, at least two new young smokers take their place. in total across this country, we

have 4,000 young americans under 18 smoking their first cigarette every day, recruited by a tobacco industry that spend morse than $10 billion a year to sell its products as cool and fun. so the ad campaign we're launching today will tell the real story of how tobacco use can change your life. the courageous individuals who volunteered to be in this campaign have lost lungs, legs, fingers and the ability to speak as a result of smoking's toll. stories like these are familiar to millions of americans already suffering from tobacco-related illnesses and their families and friends but we hope these ads based on the successful campaign in several states will be a wake-up call for the smokers and potential smokers who are not yet aware of the enormous damage they may be doing to their

health. the campaign will build on a broad agenda we've undertaken in the last three years to stop kids from starting to smoke and help 70% smokers who want to quit making that important leap. we've enacted historic anti-tobacco legislation that cracks down on the back door tactics tobacco companies use to market their products to kids and restricts the use of misleading terms like light and mild. the reforms had been debated for years and now we're pleased to say they're the law of the land. we also passed a health care law that's making it easier for people to get counselling to help them quit smoking and we've made a key change so medicare now covers the treatment before people get sick, instead of forcing them to wait until symptoms start to show up. we're also supporting state

based quit lines and backing proven local anti-tobacco efforts that can eventually become models for the rest of the country. and there are signs that the momentum is building around the country. for the first time we now have comprehensive smoke-free laws in more than half the states in the country. so as we pursue these efforts, we're also conscious of the enormous burden tobacco puts on our economy. almost $200 billion a year. any step we take to reduce tobacco use, even a small amount, is likely to have a huge payoff in reduced health care costs and higher productivity. in fact, we estimate that this campaign will save $170 million over the next three years. as last week's surgeon general's report made clear, if we want to accelerate falling tobacco rates, we need to take an all-of-the-above approach that reaches everyone, from the

12-year-old thinking of testing his or her first puff to the 75-year-old lifetime smoker, who could still reap huge health benefits from quitting. and that's exactly what we've been doing. and this campaign is an important key addition to those efforts. again, thank you for being with us today for this important announcement. now i'd like to turn over the podium to surgeon general regina benson. regina. >> good afternoon. and a very special thank you to secretary sebelius in her exceptional leadership in this critical issue and a public health issue. she really regrets to have to leave for another commitment because she's really been very involved in this initiative from the beginning. being here today is personal to me. as many of you, it's also

personal to you. as i mentioned took this position, my mother died of lung cancer from smoking. when she was young, she started smoking because she was a girl, she wasn't allowed to smoke like her twin brother was and she said as soon as she got to be old enough she would. and she started smoking as a teen-ager and it took her life. i then watched my uncle buddy, her twin brother, a world war ii survivor sit tight to an oxygen tank, struggling for each breath because of emphysema until not long ago his lungs gave out. i don't want others suffer dues dew to the use of tobacco use. over the two year i've had the

privilege of releasing two surgeon general reports on tobacco. the first one, which is known as the heart stopper report because it showed that one cigarette can cause a heart attack and the science of how tobacco smoke damages almost every organ in your body. and the second report was the one that was released just a week ago focused on youth and young adults. the stories you're going to hear today will convey the messages from those two general surgeons reports in very dramatic and very real ways. i want to tell you a little bit about the science and what is from the doctor's standpoint. you know, tobacco smoke is a toxic mix of more than 7,000 chemicals and compounds. inhaling these chemicals in tobacco smoke causes immediate and long-term damage which can lead to disease and to death. damage from tobacco smoke is immediate. the chemicals in tobacco smoke reach your lungs very quickly

every time you inhale. your blood then carries the toks i can'ts to every oragain in your body. exposure quickly damagesvessels body, making the vessels more likely to clot. causing premature and permanent damage that reduces the ability of the lungs to exhale air efficiently and it leads to what we call copd, chronic obstructive lung disease, which includes emphysema. also many americans have some degree of coronary artery disease and they don't know that-the-have it because they haven't experienced symptoms. people with heart disease are at risk from second hand smoke exposure. it leads

functioning and blood clotting, which could cause a heart attack. chemicals cause inflammation and cell damage and can weaken your immune system. and the chemicals in the toxins damages your dna, which can lead to cancer body's ability to fight cancer. smoking makes it harder for diabetics to regulate their blood sugar. they have a higher risk of kidney disease, nerve disease and results in amputation, poor vision and even blindness. tobacco smoke is addicting. cigarettes are designed for addiction. nicotine is a key chemical compound that causes the powerful addicting effects of cigarettes. other ingredients and design features make them even attractive and more addictive than ever before. product design such as filter

ventilation, flavoring agents and added chemical ingredients make nicotine easier to absorb and can deliver it more quickly into the brain. this increases the addict of kick and the pleasure that smokers feels. and adolescents' bodies are more sensitive toot adolescents are more easily addicted than adults. this helps explain why every day 1,000 teen-agers become daily. and as you've heard, every day more than 1,200 americans die from smoking and each one of those people who die are being replaced by two young smokers. in almost 90% of those replacement smokers smoked their first cigarette before they were age 18. fortunately less people smoke today than in the past. with a whole lot of effort our nation has reduced tobacco use by half since the first surgeon

general's report in 1964. however, since 2003 our progress has stalled. it has stayed the same since 2003. one in five adults in the united states continue to smoke approximately and 3.6 million adolescent smoke. tobacco use remains the of prev the united states. but the good news is that we know what to do. if you or your loved one smokes, please quit. as a family physician, i tell million americans, that quitting gives your body a chance to heal the damage caused by smoking. quitting at any age and at any time is beneficial. when smokers quit, the risk of . stroke risks can fall to about the same as nonsmockekers aftero to five years. the risk of cancer of the mouth,

throat, esophagus and bladder are cut in half of five years and the risk of lung cancer dies by about a half in ten years. so it's never too late to quit, but the sooner you do, the better. as a nation we know what works. when we increase the price of tobacco, smoking rates decline. when we enact smoke-free policies and reduce exposure to second-hand smoke, we prompt smokers to quit, changes social norms, support healthy decisions and reduce heart attacks. and when we educate the public with aggressive media campaigns, we inform them of the risk and encourage tobacco users to quit and prevent youth from starting. so today we're going to do just that, educate the public with an aggressive media campaign. now i'm gfreeden, the director disease control and prevention, to come and tell bus the cdc's

tip from former smokers campaign. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, surgeon general benjamin. thank you to the department of health and humans services and secretary kathleen sebelius, who have been real leaders, effectively pushing tobacco control on to the agenda and moving us forward through the fda and through many other means to reduce tobacco use in the u.s. i'm here as the director of the centers for disease control and prevention, the nation's prevention agency. i'm also here as a doctor. and when i think about smoking, i think of the patients i've cared for with emphysema, gasping for every breath. the patients i cared for who didn't live to see their children graduate from high school or college. the patients i've cared for who have had strokes or heart attacks and been unable to go

back to the lives that they were previously leading. and the people who developed cancer and died from it or been -- had to go through painful and difficult treatment. that's the real story of smoking. and that's why we're at the nuseum. this is the reality. this is the news. this is what smoking brings to people's lives. nearly 90% of smokers begin smoking at a young age, under the age 18. smokers may commonly think they're just going to die a few years younger. and while it's true that smokers die i don't thi they live sicker. big tobacco has spent more than $100 billion on marketing and promotion in recent years to convey that healthy image that

secretary sebelius spoke of. now thanks to courageous ex-smokers, we can bring the reality of smoking to smokers and none smokers across the country. the images are not easy to watch. as a physician, it's not easy to care for people dealing with difficult conditions. as individuals it's even harder to live with these conditions day in and day out and yet the smokers who have come forward to tell their stories are living vibrant, healthy, affirming lives and helping other smokers to quit. ads like this work. research by the institute of medicine, the national cancer institute, the community guide, the cochran collaborative, reviews in the scientific literature are unanimous. hard-hitting ads cause smokers to quit and reduce the

likelihood that kids will start smoking. i will confess about eight years ago when i was running a health department, i wasn't convinced ads like this worked. so we decided to do essentially a test. we ran hard-hitting ads for one year and systematically monitored the impact and the we saw a substantial decline in smoking, especially in the communities where the highests e models, people who came forward, wherever we showed the adsst, p the greatest numbers. it was a dose-response that the tobacco industry continues to do aggressive marketing and promotion. the tobacco industry has spent more on january 1st and 2nd of this year than we in the cdc will spend in the entire year on this campaign. so this is going up against

great odds, but i am very confident that we will prevail because the truth does prevail and the truth is what these ex-smokers are showing to america. ads only work if they're done right and the evidence is clear that hard-hitting ads work. these will pay for themselves in reduced medical costs in just a few years we think but even more importantly it will help 50,000 smokers to quit, we project, and save thousands of lives. these are inspiring, courageous people, many here today who are willing to share their stories. and so i'd like to have the honor of introducing three of the former smokers who will come up one by one to tell us their stories. first is brandon carmichael from north dakota. brandon is 31 years old. he has burger's disease.

he was diagnosed at age 18. while the amputations he's undergone from the disease are very specific to the disease, amputations from smoking are very common in a wide range of people. second roosevelt smith from virginia, age 51, who has had a heart attack and heart surgery. he was 45 when he was diagnosed. and third, terrie hall from north carolina, 35, diagnosed with head and neck cancer at the age of 40. we'll hear from these three individuals and i believe we'll show all of the a >> thank you. thank you given for invitingher.

i'm brandon from north dakota. i started smoking when i was 15 years old. peer pressure drove me too pick up that first cigarette. just three years later at the age of 18 i was diagnosed with burger's disease. a disease that affects young or middle age smokers between the ages of 20 and 40. it causes inflammation and clotting of your arteries and veins results in reduced circulation. because of that diagnosis i suffered extreme pain, multiple sores and even gangrene. by the time i was 19, i had lost my left leg, i had lost my right leg at the age of 23. and because of my poor circulation, both my index fingers are now shorter than the rest of my fingers. off and on throughout this ordeal, i continued to smoke and at the age of 27 i was finally able to quit. the use of nicotine replacement therapies helped me this it n this process but a home health care nurse gave me the will

power and strength to finally quit successfully. that nurse is now my wife. not everyone will have the guardian angel that i consider my wife to be in helping me through this process. for those people still to get the help that's available. there are tools and resources out there that can help.e to learn from my story, it's that smoking has consequences you just don't know what that consequence of that next cigarette will be. thank you. [ applause ] >> roosevelt smith. >> hello.

i'm roosevelt from virginia. i became a daily smoker at 17. when i enlisted in the navy for the next 28 years, i was a pack-a-day smoker. i've had five heart attacks, received two stents and had one open heart surgery where they performed six different bypasses. despite all this, i still continued to smoke. the addiction was that strong. i lost my ability to work my trade as a commercial plumber, i could no longer perform the tasks that was needed, not being able to work cat family and myself. something that impacts me to this day. i have five children. after my heart attacks, i could no longer physically -- do physical activities with my

children. three years ago i finally quit. my heart physically hurt from the years of smoking, but my move came from the heart. i did not want to family. i wanted to do all i could do to ensure that i would be around for my children to grow up. do not think that cigarettes can't hurt you. they will. if you want to quit, your family and friends will be glad to help you. your loved ones will thank you. i know mines did. thank you. [ applause ] >> terrie hall from north carolina. >> good afternoon. i'terrie from north carolina.

i want to thank you for allowing me to tell my story. i started smoking at the age of 17. i smoked for 23 years. at the peak of my addiction i was up to two pack as day. at the age of 40 i was diagnosed with larynx cancer and now i have a hole in my neck. i've had cancer 11 times. seven since my larynx surgery. in 2001. you know, you think this only happens to other people. well, i'm the other people. when i was growing up, there was no tobacco education in north carolina, a tobacco state.

what the cdc is doing today through this campaign is moving us into a positive direction. i'm grateful for the opportunity to share my story. hopefully to help keep others from making the choice that has so impacted my health and my life. thank you. [ applause ] >> it's a vascular disease brought on buy smoking. >> my fingers started to go piece by piece. first it was my left leg. after my left it was my right leg. now i'm a double amputee all from smoking. >> my tip to everyone is don't believe this can't happen to you because it can. >> you can quit. for free help call 1-800-quit

now. >> the name is roosevelt. i always thought cigarette smoking just messed up your lungs. i never thought that at only 45 it would give me a heart attack or that it would stop me from playing basketball with my kids, never thought it would give mar thought that it would change my life forever. my tip is do your heart a favor and quit now. >> you can quit. for free help visit smokefree.gov. >> i'm terrie. i used to be a smoker. i want to tell you something about getting ready in the morning. this. then wig. then this device and now you're ready for the day. >> you can quit. for free help call 1-800-quit

now. >> it began with my big toe. that was my first amation that i had. >> bergers disease is a vas kau lar disease brought on my smoking. >> my fingers started to go piece by piece. >> first it was my left leg. after my left it was my right leg. now i'm a double amputee, all from smoking. >> my tip to everyone is don't believe this can't happen to you because it can. >> for free help call 1-800-quit-now. >> my name is roosevelt. i always thought cigarette smoking just messed up your lungs. i never thought at 45 it would give he a aheart attack, never thought it would stop me from playing basketball with my kids, never thought that it would give me a scar like this, and never thought it would change my life forever. my tip is do your heart a favor and quit now.

let's give a huge round of applause to the brave men and women who have told their stories. [ applause ] >> this is the reality. what's at stake is today and every day this year 1,200 americans will be killed by tobacco. and for every person who dies, there are 20 more who are living with disease, disability or disfigurement from tobacco. americans, whether you smoke or not, are paying the costs of smoking, not only in the human lives and productivity that we're losing in our communities but in $200 million a year --

$200 billion a year, excuse me, in health and productivity costs. starting today americans will see the reality of smoking as doctors and family members, patients and loved ones see it. there's good news. most americans who have ever smoked have already quit. so we're making progress. and most americans who smoke today want to quit. more than two-thirds want to quit and most try to quit every year. ads like these and support services greatly increase the likelihood that they will succeed in becoming tobacco free. if you smoke, quitting is the single most important thing that can you do to improve your health and it will also protect the people around you. children whose parents smoke are twice as likely to smoke

themselves and virtually all children who live with a smoker have detectable levels of smoking toxins in their bodies, even if people don't smoke in their homes. if you smoke, quit. if someone you love smokes, help them quit. while most smokers quit on their own using quit line, medication and counseling can double or more than double your chances of succeeding. so, again, if you smoke, quit now. and if you want help you can call the national toll free quit line at 1-800-quit-now or visit www smokefree.gov. i want to again thank the department of health and human services secretary sebelius, surgeoner benjamin and the courageous men and women who came forward to share their stories with america to