THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 9, 1996 TAG: 9609090083
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 23 lines
Feeling its own health threatened, the tobacco industry spent more than $15 million in the first half of 1996 to thwart efforts to curtail teen-age smoking, raise industry taxes and restrict advertising.
Industry giant Philip Morris led the way with $11.3 million, according to the first-ever reports disclosing special interests' real expenses in lobbying the federal government.
``We have had a lot of federal attention from regulators and the White House,'' said Thomas Lauria, a spokesman for the Tobacco Institute. ``It's never easy communication, because tobacco is controversial on many, many levels.''
The industry, once given deference in Washington, has seen its credibility eroded by allegations that executives covered up the damaging and addictive nature of cigarettes, said Michael Pertschuk, an anti-tobacco researcher and activist at the Advocacy Institute. by CNB