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• Obama signs anti-smoking bill, cites own struggle 

President Barack Obama cited his own long struggle to quit the cigarettes he took up as a teenager as he signed the nation's strongest-ever anti-smoking bill Monday and praised it for providing critically needed protections for future generations.

"The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of smoking has finally emerged victorious," Obama said during the sun-splashed Rose Garden signing ceremony.

The bill marks the latest legislative victory for Obama's first five months. Among his other successes: a $787 economic stimulus bill, legislation to expand a state program providing children's health insurance and a bill making it easier for workers to sue for pay discrimination.

The president has frequently spoken, in the White House and on the campaign trail, of his own struggles to quit smoking. He did so again during the ceremony, bringing it up while criticizing the tobacco industry for marketing its products to young people.

"I know — I was one of these teenagers," Obama said. "I know how difficult it is to break this habit."

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The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of smoking has finally emerged victorious. . . . I know — I was one of these teenagers. I know how difficult it is to break this habit.
President Barack Obama, as he signed the FDA bill Monday during a Rose Garden signing ceremony.