Much is known about the use of tobacco products,especially their effects on the health of those who smoke cigarettes. What's known includes two grim facts: Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable,premature death in the United States. And thousands of kids start smoking every day in the United States,many starting a lifetime of addiction. But what federal regulators and researchers know less about is exactly why people start using a specific tobacco product such as cigarettes,cigars,pipes and/or chewing tobacco. They also want to know why and when people stop smoking or using other tobacco products,and why they start up again. To find some of the missing pieces of that puzzle,the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have launched a major,nationwide study of more than 40,000 smokers and non-smokers,including about 7,000 youths age 12 to 18. The $118.3 million Population Assessment on Tobacco |