Wegmans Sets Example for Food Industry With Decision to Stop Selling Tobacco
Products
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by
Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids:
The Wegmans supermarket chain has taken an extraordinary step to protect
public health by announcing that effective February 10, 2008, it will stop
selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in all of its stores. The
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids congratulates Wegmans for putting health and
lives ahead of profits from selling deadly and addictive tobacco products.
Wegmans has set an example for other supermarkets and retailers to follow.
Wegmans has rightly recognized that tobacco products are no ordinary consumer
product. Rather, they are the leading preventable cause of death in the
United States, killing more than 400,000 people, sickening millions more and
costing the nation nearly $100 billion in health care bills each year. It is
encouraging that a growing number of businesses, such as Wegmans and hotel
chains that have adopted smoke-free policies, are joining the public health
community in seeking to reduce tobacco use and its devastating consequences.
Wegmans operates 71 stores in New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Virginia and Maryland.
SOURCE Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
Joel Spivak of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, +1-202-296-5469
