US President Barack Obama may have just made life more difficult for cigarette makers¹, but he is not above sneaking² a smoke every now and again.

Obama, who has publicly struggled to quit smoking, said he still hasn't completely kicked the habit even after signing a law this week that will likely set tough new rules for the tobacco industry.

"As a former smoker³ I constantly struggle with it. Have I fallen off the wagon⁴ sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No," Obama said at a news conference.

"I don't do it in front of my kids, I don't do it in front of my family. I would say that I am 95 percent cured, but there are times where I mess up," he said.

The new law gives the US Food and Drug Administration the power to strictly⁵ limit the manufacturing and marketing⁶ of tobacco products.

At a White House signing ceremony Monday, Obama said that he was among the nearly 90 percent of smokers⁷ who took up the habit before their 18th birthday.

"Once you go down this path it's something you continually struggle with, which is precisely⁸ why the legislation we signed is so important because what we don't want is kids going down that path in the first place," he said at the news conference.

Nearly 20 percent of Americans smoke and tobacco use kills about 440,000 people a year in the United States due to cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other ailments⁹.

美国总统奥巴马最近让烟草商的日子不好过，而他自己仍然时不时地偷偷吞云吐雾。

奥巴马本周签署一项法令，可能制定新的更加严格的烟业条例，尽管如此，这位公开宣布努力戒烟的总统称，自己还没有完全改掉这个习惯。

奥巴马在记者招待会上说：“作为一位前烟民，我一直在努力戒烟，是否有时也会把持不住呢？是的。但是不是天天抽，时时抽呢？当然不是了。”

他说：“我从不在孩子和家人面前吸烟，可以这样说，在95%的情况下我都不会犯烟瘾了，但我烦的时候还是想吸两口。”

新法令赋予美国食品药品管理局严格限制烟草类产品生产和销售的权力。

奥巴马本周一在白宫的法令签署仪式上称，他和其他近90%的烟民一样，在18岁前就养成了这个习惯。

他在记者招待会上说：“一旦你走上这条路，就要不停地与吸烟抗争了，这也正说明我们签署的这项法令为什么如此重要，因为首先我们都不想让孩子们重蹈覆辙。”

近20%的美国人是烟民，每年有44万美国人死于因吸烟导致的癌症、心脏病、肺气肿以及其它疾病。

Vocabulary:

 be above: 不易受到..., 不屑于, 超出...之外

 fall off the wagon: 戒烟/酒失败，旧态复萌(on the wagon是指下决心戒掉恶习，如果没有坚持住，就称为off the wagon）

 mess up：搞糟，陷入困境