Neptune, NJ – Public health officials and state leaders today applauded U.S. Representative Frank Pallone’s (R-NJ) efforts to protect New Jersey’s kids from tobacco by doing everything he can to pass legislation before Congress to grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over tobacco.  Representative Pallone is a cosponsor of the legislation (HR. 1108) and is one of its most ardent supporters. He is Chairman of the House Health Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the legislation, and will play a key role in ensuring that the bill comes before the committee this fall.     Speaking today at Jersey Shore Medical Center (JSUMC), Assemblyman Steve Corodemus (R-Monmouth) said that he fully supports Pallone’s efforts and that “keeping tobacco away from our kids is a job too big for our schools and parents to do by themselves, it’s time for government to step up to the plate and help our families.” New Jersey’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Fred Jacobs was in attendance and fully endorsed H.R. 1108, noting that it could have a real impact in terms of lowering smoking-related healthcare costs. “In New Jersey alone, we spend $3.17 billion on health care costs directly caused by smoking and 11,300 people die from tobacco each year.” Commissioner Jacobs went on to say, “They’re not just statistics.  They're our moms and dads, our brothers and sisters, our grandmas and grandpas, our friends and the people we work with.  These are real people that tobacco has taken from us.” Dr. Steven Kairys, one of the state’s leading pediatricians, noted that for children, exposure to cigarette smoke, whether first or second hand, is especially detrimental because the lungs during childhood and adolescence are still developing and could induce painful and chronic afflictions such as asthma in their adult life. Dr. Kairys is the Chairman of the Pediatrics Department at the K. Hovanian Children’s Hospital at JSUMC and also serves as the Director of the New Jersey Pediatric Council on Research and Education. State Senator Joseph Vitale addressed the crowd and urged that more must be done to protect children from the subversive marketing tactics employed by Big Tobacco.  The Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Chairman said: “We need the Federal Government to step in and get these products, such as flavored cigarettes, off the shelves and out of the hands of teens. These products prey on teens and introduce them to a lifetime of smoking and all the health problems that follow.” Mary Pat Angelini, the long-time executive director of Prevention First gave the most impassioned speech of the day stating that “the tobacco industry is targeting our kids and as a mother, grandmother and preventionist, I am not going to take this lying down.” Ms. Angelini has served as executive director of Prevention First of Monmouth and Ocean County since 1992 "Representative Pallone still has a critical role to play in ensuring that strong FDA tobacco regulation is enacted into law but, so far, we appreciate his hard work to get his bill passed an on the President’s desk” said Peter Slocum of the American Cancer Society, who served as the moderator for the event.