THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 16, 1995 TAG: 9508160001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
A president with a chance of winning Southern states' electoral votes would not risk losing them by blessing a federal initiative to classify and regulate nicotine as an addictive drug and ordering measures to remove tobacco from the easy reach of children.
President Clinton hasn't a prayer of winning the South if he runs for re-election in 1996 - even if he smokes two packs a day and chews tobacco at press conferences. So he loses nothing by proposing restrictions on tobacco advertising and sales. He perhaps gains by standing up to the tobacco giants - we're talking a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry here - to protect children.
Mr. Clinton may well have strengthened his standing with many Americans by directing that barriers be raised between tobacco products and preteens and teens. Most Americans old enough to smoke do not and don't want their loved ones to acquire the habit because tobacco kills. Surveys confirm again and again that at least three quarters of the 50 million Americans who smoke want to quit.
And most adult smokers don't want their children to become addicted to cigarettes. Seventy percent of children who become regular smokers regret starting; 66 percent want to kick the habit.
Little wonder. Nearly all smokers know that smoking is a mortal health hazard. At least 400,000 Americans annually succumb early to cancers, emphysema or cardiovascular diseases caused by smoking. Of the 3,000 youngsters who take up smoking each day, 1,000 will perish of these diseases.
The mournful statistics indict smoking as the No. 1 cause of preventable premature death in the country. Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol, illegal drugs, car and airplane accidents, murder, suicide, fires and AIDS combined.
Thus, smoking remains a mammoth public-health challenge despite three decades' shrinkage in the portion of the U.S. populace that smokes. The decline dates from publication of the first U.S. surgeon general's report.
Scientific evidence of the cancers, respiratory ills and heart and circulatory diseases induced by smoking has persuaded millions to shun cigarettes. The disappearance of all cigarette advertising from television further contributed to the decline.
The biggest inroads against smoking have followed successes by the clear-air movement. The first clean-air victory separated smokers and nonsmokers on passenger aircraft. Clean-air sentiment has since banished smoking not only from domestic and some international scheduled flights but also from other modes of public transportation and airline terminals and countless offices, factories, warehouses, restaurants, coliseums and other enclosed public spaces. Even the armed services, which for decades encouraged smoking, has turned against cigarettes.
Using his executive-branch authority, Mr. Clinton will curb advertising, promotion, distribution and marketing of cigarettes to children. While that doubtless sounds good to parents, it has triggered litigation by tobacco corporations, advertising agencies and sundry publications.
Mr. Clinton seeks to remove cigarette vending machines from places frequented by the under-age-18 population. He wants an end to cigarette advertising in magazines read by youths and on billboards that presents smoking as ``cool,'' ``adult'' and ``glamorous.'' The tobacco industry will fight him all the way unless it can force a compromise.
But smoking among children has been rising. Smoking by eighth-graders increased 30 percent between 1991 and 1994. Mr. Clinton aims to reduce smoking by children by 50 percent within seven years. His campaign will seem an appropriate use of his powers to most parents. The Republican Congress will look bad if it tries to stop him, so the tobacco pushers look to the courts to do that.
Whatever comes of the Clinton program - and it is possible that the curbs he seeks on cigarette advertising will be ruled unconstitutional - this much is certain: Tobacco will continue to lose ground in the United States. And public distaste for the manufacturers of tobacco products that will kill a great many of those who use them as directed will grow. by CNB