WASHINGTON, D.C. -- August 19, 2009 -- “The cancer community applauds the announcement of Lawrence Deyton, M.D. M.S.P.H. as Director of the new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products. This position, created by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which was signed into law by President Obama this past June, will oversee the FDA’s new authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco products. Dr. Deyton’s background in public health and policy makes him an ideal candidate to serve as the Center’s inaugural director.
“We are pleased to see the Administration working so quickly to implement the law by establishing the Center for Tobacco Products, so that it may begin important and lifesaving work. Every day, 3,500 children pick up their first cigarette and 1,000 children become addicted smokers. The Center, under Dr. Deyton’s leadership, will be engaging in lifesaving activities by stopping the many tactics that lure children to pick up poisonous products that too often lead to deadly addiction.”
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Christina Saull
Phone: (202) 585-3250
Email: [email protected]
Alissa Havens
Phone: (202) 661-5772
Email: [email protected]