Covering the President signing the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act today, I took a bit of a trip down memory lane. I recalled the 1994 hearings Henry Waxman held at which the tobacco industry CEOs denied smoking was deadly, nicotine was addictive, and they marketed their products to children. I remember reporting on the attorneys general lawsuits against tobacco. I remember it well, because the effort came to a head the summer I was pregnant with my first child. I spent a fair amount of time chasing down the attorneys who were shuttling between settlement negotiations.

The advertising and marketing restrictions signed into law today read much like the global "master settlement agreement" agreed to then. But there was no agreement to have the FDA regulate. Now that it has happened, it feels a bit anti-climatic. It will still be 2-3 years before the new FDA office will be up and running. A war and a financial crisis put tobacco regulation on the back burner. With smoking banned from bars, restaurants, and hospital campuses, it's harder to be a smoker these days. Still, anti-smoking advocates say the law, assuming the FDA gets the resources it needs to do the job, will make a difference and help keep young people smoking from picking up the habit.