On the recordMay 18, 1998
I just make a plea to my colleagues that, throughout that period of time, we keep coming back to what our true focus is, the reason for having this bill. It really goes back to some of the data and statistics that have already been mentioned, which I am sure we will mention again and again. But we are here in order to reduce the number of kids smoking, teen smoking, under-age smoking. We have heard over the last several months about the number of kids who start smoking every day; 3,000 kids start smoking every day. And 1,000, or 1 out of every 3 of those kids who start today, will die prematurely. That means they will die earlier than they would if they had never started smoking. That means a thousand children today, over the last 24 hours, have started smoking and will die before their time because they started smoking today. Ninety percent of all adult smokers began smoking at or before age 18.
Source
govinfo.gov
