Contact:  Jennifer Childress, 202-558-4357

January 14, 2008

 Statement by John M. Clymer, President, Partnership for Prevention, on Wegmans Food Markets’ announcement that it will discontinue the sale of tobacco products, effective February 10, 2008

 Partnership for Prevention commends Wegmans for aligning its business practices with its customers’ and workers’ health, and calls on other retailers to follow suit. 

Tobacco use causes heart disease, stroke, multiple cancers, emphysema and other chronic diseases.  Tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death in the U.S.  In the five states where Wegmans stores are located, each year tobacco use is associated with 72,800 deaths:

New York       25,500

Pennsylvania   20,100

New Jersey     11,300

Virginia           9,300

Maryland         6,800

Danny Wegman has demonstrated his company’s leadership in advancing the health of its customers, employees and residents of the communities it serves through his involvement in Partnership for Prevention’s Leading by Example CEO Roundtable on Health, and through Wegmans’ key role in the ‘Eat Well, Live Well’ Challenge of the Rochester Business Alliance.  It is this type of leadership and business practices that keeps Wegmans at or near the top of FORTUNE magazine’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.”

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