Date: Mon, May 14, 2001 6:17 PM

Subject: Comment on Cigarette& Smokeless Tobacco Report

I am a county public health official and I use the reports to ascertain trends and the public health implications for our local community. I strongly believe that the Commission should continue to collect and publish data regarding cigarette and smokeless tobacco sales, advertising and promotion. I believe some of the main reasons they should be continued is tobacco is the number one preventable cause of disease and premature death in the U.S. and the world, and as the evidence has shown and continues to show, the tobacco industry targets our children and youngest adults with its marketing and the information the reports provides a meaningful measurement of their efforts and degree of success in that target marketing and is an important gauge of the public health efforts to reduce that impact. I contend that all of the data which is collected should be included in future reports.

Richard P. Fehr