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

DATE: MONDAY, March 21, 1994                   TAG: 9403210037
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TAMPA, FLA.                                LENGTH: Short

CALIF. MARKS ANTI-SMOKING SUCCESSES

The largest and most aggressive anti-smoking campaign ever undertaken led to a 28 percent drop in the number of smokers in California over five years, three times the national decline.

Teen-agers were the only group in which smoking did not decline, according to a five-year assessment of the $599 million campaign. The assessment found that teens were more receptive than other groups to cigarette advertising.

The assessment also showed that bans on smoking in the workplace cut cigarette consumption by 26 percent and helped many smokers quit altogether.

"This is the most important piece of survey research that's ever been done on tobacco," said Stanton A. Glantz, an authority on smoking and health at the University of California, San Francisco.

The assessment is based on the largest detailed survey ever conducted on smoking, tobacco advertising and anti-smoking programs, Glantz said. The research and lessons learned from California's campaign can help other states reduce smoking, Glantz said.

The California program was created by a referendum called Proposition 99 in 1988 and is financed by a 25-cent hike in the state cigarette tax.

It includes school education programs, grants to cities and towns to develop workplace and restaurant smoking policies, and a series of advertisements.

by CNB