but, you know, even with the fda s major ad campaign directed at youth, just think of the funds that come from big tobacco to counter that. marketing, you know, still is a huge effort and big tobacco works very hard to both begin to addict and to continue keep addicted a population. let me ask you about e-cigarettes? where are you on that? have you studied what you believe are the health risks of e-cigarettes? well, no one can have studied the long-term effect of e-cigarettes, because they just haven t been there long enough. studies are ongoing. we think more studies need to be done. we do think that in places where cigarettes are banned, e-cigarettes should also be banned. they shouldn t be allowed cvs, by the way, has not ever sold them. because they were waiting on an fda essentially waiting for the fda to weigh in, and they still haven t made that decision. right. the fda is supporting research in that area. but it s an area that, you know,
where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch and the light comes on. it s our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes. generating electricity that s cleaner and reliable, with fewer emissions it matters. today, a deep dive into a huge blow dealt to big tobacco this morning. cvs, one of the largest retail pharmacies in the country, say it is will ban the sale of cigarettes and all the tobacco products in their stores later this year. in the end, the company says its
actually down compared to recent years according to the cdc. it s been in steady decline for the past 50 years. now down to 19% of american adults. that number adds up to nearly 44 million smokers. but the newest anti-smoking push isn t directed at them. it s directed at kids. many say they started when they were 18 or younger. that s the backdrop for the fda s first national public education campaign specifically targeting teenage smokers. well, rose marie robertson is the chief science officer for the american heart association. she joins me now. good morning to you. pleased to be here. obviously, you ve been among the folks praising and pushing for this further. do you expect that cvs s decision will lead to you heard walgreens. it didn t sound like they were saying no, that they were thinking about it. we certainly hope so. if, in fact, if you think about it, if all the retailers that have a pharmacy in place would,
that passed ordinances that banned, i guess, pharmacy stores from selling right. boston, san francisco. are you still going to continue that campaign? well, i think since cvs is the only pharmacy to step up and say that it s going to do this at this point, you know, we have to continue that campaign. we think it s very important that we help those cities that haven t yet done that figure out how to do it. all right. and many of them are thinking about it. we ll leave it today. this is the tipping point, i think, in stigmatize fully stigmatizing cigarette culture in ways we haven t seen before. mary, thank you very much for coming in. thank you very much. coming up, singing a new tune, an american idol runner-up tries to see if he can win a different kind of contest. plus, farming out favors. the president bucking tradition with his pick for where to sign the farm bill. first, white house soup of the day, in case you re wondering, mushroom and leek. we ll see