Long battle between health groups and tobacco companies
President Barack Obama signed a law yesterday settling a decade-long battle between health groups and tobacco companies. Left unresolved was the question of his own fight with nicotine.
The president invoked his personal struggle in lauding the legislation to strengthen regulation of tobacco products, particularly provisions that he said would curtail the marketing of cigarettes to young people.
“Each day, 1,000 young people under the age of 18 become new regular, daily smokers, and almost 90 percent of all smokers began at or before their 18th birthday,” Obama said at the White House. “I know; I was one of these teenagers.”
“I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it’s been with you for a long time,” he said.
Obama, 47, and his aides haven’t answered directly when asked periodically whether the president has completely broken the habit since winning the White House.
“Obviously, this is a struggle that he continues to have,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said after the bill signing ceremony.
The legislation signed by Obama gives the Food and Drug Administration power to restrict ingredients such as tar and nicotine, limit advertising to young people and approve the sale of new products.
Studies show that smoking is most likely to become a habit during teen years, as was the case for Obama. Almost 90 percent of adult smokers started smoking at or before age 19, according to the American Cancer Society.
Staving Off Cravings
The president has said first lady Michelle Obama, whom he married in 1992, pushed him to quit. He regularly chewed nicotine gum during his 2008 presidential campaign to help stave off cravings, according to a report from his longtime primary- care physician that was released during the race. The doctor, David Scheiner, wrote that Obama was in excellent health without excess body fat or medical complaints.
With protective aides and Secret Service, it’s difficult to track whether Obama is keeping to his vow to stop. At the same time, he’s frequently in the spotlight and under scrutiny.
When asked in February whether he has smoked since moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Obama was coy. “I haven’t had one on these grounds,” he told CNN. “Sometimes it’s hard, but, you know, I’m sticking to — sticking to it.”
Healthy Regimen
Except for the smoking vice, Obama adheres to a healthy diet and workout regimen, going to the gym almost every day and playing basketball and golf whenever possible. He isn’t shy about encouraging staff to live more healthily and has even offered to pay for senior aides to work out with his Chicago- based trainer, who now spends part of his week in Washington.
Still, like millions of Americans, he struggles with one of the world’s most unhealthy addictions. Smoking is the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the U.S. and claims 440,000 American lives annually, according to the American Medical Association. Forty-five million American adults smoke and 1,000 children become new smokers every day, the AMA says.
In the past, tobacco-state lawmakers have successfully fought off efforts to regulate the industry, killing a similar attempt in 1998 and a half-dozen times since then. This year, the campaign had the support of the Democratic majority in Congress, public-health groups and Altria Group Inc., the biggest U.S. cigarette maker with brands such as Marlboro and Benson & Hedges.
Withdrawal
Obama has said he puffed on three to eight cigarettes a day before deciding to quit. “So it wasn’t a huge challenge with withdrawal symptoms,” he said in an interview published in the November 2008, issue of Men’s Health magazine. “Michelle had been putting pressure on me for a while,” he said.
As an Illinois state senator in the late 1990s until 2004, Obama took part in a weekly poker game with colleagues in Springfield. There, away from his Chicago home, he would light up, all the while hoping Michelle wouldn’t find out, colleagues from the time said. During one of those games, his wife called and Obama immediately put out his cigarette.
“We said, ‘What the hell is she going to do? See you smoking?’” state Senator Terry Link, who hosted the games, recalled last year.
During Obama’s presidential campaign, nicotine gum didn’t always prove an acceptable substitute for the real thing. “There have been a couple of times during the campaign when I fell off the wagon and bummed one, and I had to kick it again,” Obama told Men’s Health. “But I figure, seeing as I’m running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack.”
Copyright © 2009 Bloomberg
