THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509140009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
If the tobacco companies are truly sincere in their bid to keep tobacco products out of the hands of our youth, why are they bringing suit against the FDA's proposed regulations to do just that? If we take them at their word, that they do not want children to smoke and do not attempt to attract them, why do so many billboards and other advertisements still exist in close proximity to schools and other places where youths congregate?
Expecting this industry, which depends on the large number of youths who start smoking every day to replace those smokers who quit or die, to regulate access to these same youths is as ludicrous as expecting a congressman who received more than $90,000 in campaign funds from tobacco interests to propose the strong laws needed to protect our youth.
None other than former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater was quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 8): ``The tobacco industry continues to insist that smoking is a simple matter of individual rights and adult choice. If that were true, I would be on their side. But we're not talking about adults. We're talking about keeping an addictive and lethal substance out of the hands of children. Neither the FDA nor anyone else is talking about prohibiting adults from smoking.''
Former President Jimmy Carter said in USA Today (Aug. 3): ``Given all that we know, the scientific case for protecting children from tobacco is indisputable. The moral imperative to act is imperative. . . . This is not a Democrat or a Republican issue. It is a bipartisan, pro-child, pro-family, pro-health issue.''
The FDA proposal is the best hope of protecting the lives of the next generation, as Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man have already poisoned this one.
KURT H. BAGLEY
Chesapeake, Aug. 31, 1995 by CNB