ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 30, 1996 TAG: 9610300061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Smoking foes say the warning labels on cigarette packages aren't doing enough to teach Americans the true consequences of tobacco.
Citing the bigger, blunter warnings that some other countries require - such as Australia's ``Smoking Kills'' - they're planning to launch a new effort to strengthen the notices for the first time in 12 years.
Among the goals: to have the surgeon general's warning on cigarette packs declare that smoking is addictive.
``The warnings are insufficient and have been insufficient over a period of decades,'' said Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., who is offering the legislation. ``Other countries do a better job.''
But the fight in Congress could be tough, Meehan acknowledges.
The tobacco industry denies that cigarettes are addictive or that they kill, but it also says Americans know that smoking poses ``health risks.'' Indeed, the fact that Americans knew of health risks and smoked anyway is key to the industry's defense against hundreds of lawsuits.
``This is certainly not a new subject in this country,'' said Peggy Carter of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. But she couldn't say whether the industry would fight Meehan's proposed label change, because the companies haven't yet seen it.
But many Americans are unaware that cigarettes can cause problems other than cancer and heart disease, such as impotence, blindness and stomach ulcers. Those are just a few of the dangers listed in the newly published ``Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You,'' a collection of scientific studies compiled by the American Council on Science and Health.
Meehan, who faces no re-election challenge and therefore has time to prepare legislation for the next Congress, wants warnings printed in Spanish as well as in English. And he ultimately hopes to make more visible the label that now is in fine print on the side of packs.
Take Canada's label, which fills the top third of the package. ``Smoking can kill you'' warns large type above the cigarettes' brand name. ``Tobacco smoke can harm your children,'' warns another label, written in both English and French.
``Smoking Kills'' says a similarly large label in Australia. Turn the package over to read that ``smoking causes more than four times the number of deaths caused by car accidents.''
The Clinton administration has made curbing tobacco a priority - and allowed the Food and Drug Administration to declare nicotine an addictive drug - but hasn't said whether it would push Meehan's proposal if the president is re-elected.
Meehan expects the backing of a small but bipartisan coalition in the House that has successfully pushed anti-tobacco legislation, including the current cigarette warnings.
Congress wrote four surgeon general's warnings that rotate on U.S. cigarette packages. They say that smoking causes cancer and heart disease, that quitting reduces health risks, that smoking endangers fetuses and that smoke contains carbon monoxide.
Those warnings are far more decorous than the skull-and-crossbones picture New York state wanted to slap on cigarettes in 1964.
Newly uncovered industry documents show that cigarette makers were so worried about labels pending in 20 states three decades ago that they got Congress to write the first federal label in 1964. That label, which pre-empted further state action, was designed to be strong enough to protect companies from lawsuits while not scaring away too many smokers.
A federal label is ``the only hope for the tobacco industry,'' British tobacco scientists wrote in a 1964 memo recounting a meeting with U.S. tobacco chiefs. ``The Tobacco Institute is confident that favorable bills will be reported out.''
Tobacco foes say current warning labels are so boring that few people read them. Studies indicate that the more blunt ``smoking kills'' labels are somewhat more effective than the U.S. warnings.
But teen-agers don't heed warnings that they'll get cancer in 30 years, notes Bill Goodshall of SmokeFree Pennsylvania.
What would make a teen reconsider?
``What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You'' offers a suggestion Congress is unlikely to put on a warning label: Smoking just two cigarettes constricts blood flow to the penis enough to cause at least temporary impotence.
Goodshall wants Congress to let states put stronger warnings on cigarettes than are federally mandated.
Meehan cautions that any change will be a hard fight. But he is pushing first for an addiction warning because ``the evidence is overwhelming on that,'' he said. ``That should be something that all reasonable people would agree to.''
LENGTH: Medium: 88 linesby CNB