About a decade-and-a-half after the US Food and Drug Administration first proposed placing a ban on the sale and marketing of tobacco products to teenagers, Government authorities announced on Thursday that they would now be finally putting the rule into official effect.

The proposal was largely controversial when it first appeared in 1995, and was thus never adopted by the agency because of a ruling by the Supreme Court that legislation had to put into place in order to empower the FDA to actually regulate tobacco products. Last June, however, the legislation was officially passed by President Barack Obama, who awarded his signature to it.

The rule is now all set to go into effect starting June 22.

"The historic rule we’re issuing today will help our kids to stay healthy”, said Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary.

Most of the other provisions put forward by the 1995 rule were actually adopted by the tobacco industry in 1998 as a result of litigation, and every state today bans sale of tobacco and tobacco products to minors. Enforcement provisions, however, do tend to vary widely.