dr. howard koh, my assistant secretary for health, who you will also hear from. we have key members of the office of the assistant secretary of health staff leadership, wonderful team here from cdc, dr. perry who is the author of this report, who comes from texas to be with tuesday, and lots of you who have been involved in this effort for a long time. since the first surgeon general's report on tobacco was published in 1964, the good news is we have seen a percentage of americans who smoke steadily decline. in 1965, over 42% of americans smoked. by 2004, it had fallen to just under 21%. and that's very good news. but, for all the progress we have made tobacco use remains the biggest single threat to american's health. it kills an estimated 433,000 every year, 433,000. and every tobacco related death is replaced by two new smokers under the age of 25. today's report brings more troubling news. it's the first of its kind to explore the causes and consequences of tobacco use among youth and young adults. and it shows us just what we are up against. today, all over a

dr. howard koh. [applause] >> thank you so much madam secretary and thank you so much for being here every one. secretary is another commitment and has to leave but we want to of course thank her for her tremendous leadership and dedication to the tobacco epidemic. i too am delighted to see so many wonderful colleagues and friends here and let me thanked dr. benjamin who you will be hearing from in just a minute, her great colleague from the department of health and human services and fda and the cdc and the office of the secretary and so many others. we want to thank the senior science editor of this report in out of our colleagues who helped write this very important product. and most importantly we want to thank each and everyone of you for being here to support this very very important effort and this great day. we are here today to bring heightened urgency to the tremendous public health burden that tobacco continues to impose on our youth. a burden that completely is preventable. too many of ou

dr. howard koh, my assistant secretary for health, he will also hear from and we have key members at the office of the assistant secretary of health staff leadership. wonderful team here from cbc. not to perry who is the author of this report comes from texas to be with us today lots of you who have been involved in this effort for a long time. since the first surgeon general's report on tobacco was published in 1964, the good news is we have seen the percentage of americans who smoke steadily decline. in 1965, over 42% of americans smoked. a 2004, it is on to just under 21% and that is very good news. but for all the progress we have made common tobacco use remains the biggest single threat to americans health. it kills an estimated 443,000 americans every year. 443,000. every tobacco related death is replaced by two new smokers under the age of 25. today's report brings more troubling news. it's the first of its kind to explore the causes and visit tobacco use among youth and young adult. and it shows us just what were up against. today, all over america are middle schoolers develop th