PLATTSBURGH - Rick Stoddard's life was changed forever when Marie, his wife of 25 years, died of lung cancer.

Though it will be eight years this January since he lost her, her memory is fresh in his mind as he speaks to thousands each week about the perils of smoking. read more...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. The mission of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to ensure the safety of medications that treat disease, not substances that cause it.

Placing the nation's most lethal consumer product -- cigarettes -- under the FDA, as called for by The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, would be unwise. read more...

PLATTSBURGH -- When Rick Stoddard's wife, Marie, died nearly eight years ago at age 46, it obviously changed his world.
By JEFF MEYERS

Since then, he has been on a personal mission to change the world itself -- by reducing the number of teenage smokers. read more...

Opposing view: Loopholes aid Big Tobacco
Plan to let FDA regulate cigarettes would do industry's dirty work.
By Alan Blum and Michael Siegel
USA Today
September 12, 2007

The public puts its faith in the Food and Drug Administration to evaluate the safety and efficacy of medications we need to maintain good health and foods that nourish us. But placing the most lethal consumer product - cigarettes - under FDA control is absurd. read more...

Recognizing the risks of secondhand smoke
By Judge Daniel Leddy
Staten Island Advance
August 21, 2007

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A bill expected to be introduced in the New York City Council this week would prohibit smoking in an automobile when a child is an occupant. read more...

The Untold Story of How & Why Philip Morris is Pushing for FDA Regulation Submitted by Anne Landman
August 17, 2007

It may seem incongruous to the average person why Philip Morris (PM) would back legislation to restrict its business, yet that is what PM seems to be is doing by supporting S. 625, the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act," the bill that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over tobacco products. read more...

Senator Mike Enzi The Help End Addiction to Lethal Tobacco Habits Act (HEALTH Act): The Enzi War on Tobacco

We must greatly reduce the size of the United States tobacco market and the negative health impacts of tobacco use. read more...

Smoking foe won´t stop fighting
Wife´s memory guides message to students

By Sandy Quadros Bowles EDITOR
GRAFTON— Rick and Marie Stoddard renewed their wedding vows Dec. 19, 1999, their 25th anniversary.
That same day, the minister gave Marie the last rites. She was dying of lung cancer.
Less than a month later, Mr. Stoddard knelt at her bedside and held her as she drew her last breaths, gasping like "a fish out of water." read more...

Crusader warns teens of dangers of smoking

Courier & Press, October 25, 2006
Rick Stoddard has so much enthusiasm for his anti-tobacco message that he could barely keep his talk to Bosse High School students down to an hour on Tuesday. Almost since his wife, Marie, died of lung cancer nearly six years ago at the age of 46, the Webster, Mass., man has been spreading the message of the health consequences of tobacco use to young listeners, speaking to three schools a day, five days a week. read more...

Tobacco Companies Secretly Raising Levels of Nicotine
Desperate effort to hook new young smokers and prevent older ones from quitting

New York Times Editorial, 8/30/06
While most of us thought the country was trying to curb smoking, and the rapacious habits of the tobacco companies, it turns out the industry has been sneakily making cigarettes more addictive. read more...

The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General
June 27, 2006

read more...

Surgeon general warns of secondhand smoke

WASHINGTON - Separate smoking sections don't cut it: Only smoke-free buildings and public places truly protect nonsmokers from the hazards of breathing in other people's tobacco smoke, says a long-awaited surgeon general's report. read more...