
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994                   TAG: 9402250137
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ELDERS TARGETS TOBACCO

Cigarette smoking - of all addictive behaviors - is the one most likely to take hold during adolescence, and almost all adult smokers took their first drag before they graduated from high school, the U.S. surgeon general's annual report on smoking said Thursday.

Surgeon Gen. Joycelyn Elders issued a resounding warning to the nation's young people, saying: "Tobacco addicts and it kills."

Speaking at a news conference, she added: "We can no longer discuss smoking as an adult habit - because today, tobacco use, without question, is an adolescent tragedy."

The annual report, which focused on cigarette smoking and youth, was the 23rd in a series released since the landmark 1964 document that established cigarette smoking as a significant danger to health.

Cigarette smoking is a major contributor to heart disease - the leading killer of American adults - and stroke, as well as a chief cause of certain cancers and of serious respiratory ailments such as emphysema. Federal health officials blame smoking for an estimated 434,000 deaths annually.

Although tobacco use has declined among high school seniors since the 1970s, it remained steady in the 1980s and is on the rise again at all grade levels, according to a major survey released recently by the federal government. The same survey concluded that cigarettes and alcohol remain the most widely abused substances among the nation's youth.

Now, more than 3 million adolescents smoke cigarettes and more than 1 million adolescent males use smokeless tobacco, the surgeon general's report said. And, "despite three decades of explicit health warnings, large numbers of young people continue to take up tobacco."

One of every three adolescents in the United States uses tobacco by age 18, the report said.

Elders took special aim at the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for its controversial Joe Camel ads and challenged the Federal Trade Commission to act on petitions against the advertising campaign.

Peggy Carter, a spokeswoman for R.J. Reynolds, said a recent study done for the company indicated Joe Camel was not influencing the nation's children to smoke.

"In fact, the strong negative reaction to the product he represents suggests that the campaign is not causing youth to start smoking," she said.

Elders did not call for a total tobacco advertising ban, but declared, "We shouldn't advertise something we know to be a poison and a killer." She also called for higher cigarette taxes.

by CNB