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.