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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 15, 1995                   TAG: 9509150047
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A RACE TO SAVE KIDS FROM SMOKING

So what's all this hooey from race-track owners and celebrity drivers such as Richard Petty? To hear them tell it, President Clinton's proposals to discourage teen smoking could bring NASCAR to a screeching halt.

In truth, we too oppose Clinton's proposal to ban cigarette-brand sponsorship of sporting events - including NASCAR's famous Winston Cup series, sponsored for many years by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco.

Aside from First Amendment problems, marketing research indicates that most NASCAR fans are adults, and a Centers for Disease Control survey found that Winston cigarettes are not a favorite brand of teen smokers.

This newspaper also opposes direct regulation of tobacco by the Food and Drug Administration, a path strewn with perils and leading toward failed prohibition. We'd prefer a hefty increase in cigarette taxes - especially in Virginia, home of the lowest tobacco tax in the nation. Tax hikes would help suppress smoking, especially among adolescents, while offsetting the huge medical bills that tobacco imposes.

As for efforts targeting teen smoking, we believe they should focus less on dubious censorship of advertising than on public campaigns to discourage tobacco use and to shame those who pitch to kids, as well as on tougher laws and enforcement against sales to minors.

Even so, if Congress were to allow the sporting-event sponsorship ban to go into effect - doubtful at this point - we assume other NASCAR sponsors could be found to take up where Reynolds leaves off. This is, after all, a popular sport.

Meanwhile, racing fans like everyone else should be clear as to the why of the president's campaign:

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. More than 400,000 Americans lose their lives every year due to tobacco-related cancer, respiratory illness, heart disease and other ailments. That's more than are killed by AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, illegal drugs and fires combined. Health-care costs associated with smoking soared to more than $50 billion in 1993, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Preventing children from smoking is the key to reducing this death toll. Each and every day, another 3,000 young people become regular smokers. Nearly one-third of them will die as a result.

The average teen smoker starts at age 14, and becomes a daily smoker before age 18. Studies show that if people do not begin to smoke in the teen years or even younger, it's unlikely they will ever pick up the habit.

Despite state laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors, children can easily buy these products. One study shows that teens now annually consume 516 million packs of cigarettes and 26 million containers of chewing tobacco.

There is, in other words, a race to save kids from tobacco - and right now we're losing it. Unless you're looking at the world from inside Big Tobacco's deep pockets, these facts are as undeniable as NASCAR's popularity.

We don't agree with all the specifics of Clinton's approach, but we hope