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This is NEWS plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
We stay in the U.S. Doctors say one in 13 children could see their lives shortened by smoking unless the nation takes more aggressive action to end the tobacco epidemic.
The U.S. Surgeon General says even as, astonishingly, scientists added still more diseases to the long list of cigarettes' harms.
Acting Surgeon General Borish Lushniak has unveiled a 980-page report that urges new resolve to make the next generation a smoke-free generation.
Lushniak says the clock is ticking and we can't wait another 50 years.
On the 50th anniversary of the landmark 1964 surgeon general's report that launched the anti-smoking movement, far fewer Americans are smoking. About 18 percent of adults smoke today, down from more than 42 percent in 1964.
But, the new report cautions that the U.S. government may not meet its goal of dropping that rate to 12 percent by 2020.
It says almost half a million people will die from smoking-related diseases this year. Each day, more than 3,200 youths smoke their first cigarette.
New products such as e-cigarettes, with effects that aren't yet understood, complicate public health messages.
The report says if current trends continue unabated, 5.6 million of today's children and teens will go on to die prematurely during adulthood because of smoking.
