Dr. Phil:

I have admired your straightforwardness ever since I first saw your show and watch your show daily as much as possible. I do work from home so I can watch the show.

I am a recent lung transplant patient. I received my transplant 2 years ago Feb 9th, 2003. My transplant was due to a 38 year smoking career. I would love to see you do a show on teen smoking and what are we as a society doing about it.

Every day 2000 teenagers begin to smoke and 1/3 of those will die early. Today in America 1400 Americans die from tobacco related illness and that number is probably low due to heart attacks not attributed to smoking. Tobaccofreekids.org has a World Death Clock that began in October 25,1999. That's only 42 months ago. This Death Clock keeps track of tobacco-related deaths all over the world. Today 4-14-03 at 4:30PM CDT, the toll is 13,972,787 humans that have died due to tobacco related illness. 14 MILLION HUMAN BEINGS ARE DEAD and we wonder who the terrorists are?

I know I made a choice at 13 years young to smoke. It was cool and the "thing to do". None of those wimpy filtered things. Just that "manly tobacco". Well after we found out about the possibility of cancer,,,,we were addicted to the nicotine and besides we at 18 or 19 are still "bullet proof". Many of us were. Many were able to quit. Those who didn't are paying the price.

More than 16 million Americans have COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) or emphysema. Their lungs are shot and they will die from this disease not being able to breathe. WE as adults have to educate the teenagers that are starting to smoke NOW. If we stop the demand, we stop the flow of nicotine to the market place.

I am on the Board of Directors of Teen Prevention Video. We have a video of teens talking to teens about smoking and it has been distributed to many state school systems as well as churches and any group that will show it to teens. It has been translated into Japanese because 60% of teens begin to smoke in Japan.

The video is free to anyone who wants it to help in educating our future generations from smoking.

Dr. Phil, I have my own web site that tells what smoking has done for me and what it has done to my family. I get daily responses to my site about my story of smoking and dealing with emphysema and having to be on supplemental oxygen 24/7, 365. I would like for you to take a look at just one page of my web site

www.oocities.org/thamel5038/mystory.html

One of the responses I got broke my heart. It was a short message that said: "Please help me to stop smoking. I can not quit. I am 9 years old!!" My GOD what is happening that a 9 year old can start to smoke. She will surely die long before her time. It takes 1 (one) pack of cigarettes for a teen to become addicted to nicotine. Just one pack!

Dr. Phil, you can make a difference. Please consider doing a show on teen smoking and what it cost. Not only in monetary value but in emotional value to families and the smoker who is so addicted the can not quit. I can give you tons of information on costs to the American public because of smoking. Most emphysema patients are not diagnosed till their mid or late 50's and by then it is too late to do much for them and at one point medi-care or social security has to pick up the bill for those people being disabled from their smoking. Yes they have to be held accountable BUT so do the major tobacco companies that said for so long that cigarettes were safe while all along they were adding substances to the tobacco to get the nicotine to the brain faster to get you hooked sooner so you would be a life long customer. Today there are more than 4000 ingredients in tobacco including 40 known carcinogens. And this is legal to be sold cross the counter. Nicotine is more addictive that cocaine or heroin. Yet, the FDA does not control that substance.

Help Dr. Phil

Our future generations are at risk.

Yours respectfully: Tony Hamel, 4024 Boca Bay Drive, Dallas, Texas 75244

972-620-8950