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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 27, 1995                   TAG: 9507270024
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TEEN SMOKERS

CIGARETTE SMOKING by eighth-graders has increased by 19 percent over the past three years, and by just slightly less than that among 10th- and 12th-graders. But, of course, no one can hold the tobacco industry responsible. It's as concerned as are medical authorities about the trend, and tries to discourage ``premature smoking'' by adolescents.

Har de har.

Since the National Institute on Drug Abuse released its latest study on increases in teen smokers the other day, there have been a number of interesting related developments. Just two of them:

The Wall Street Journal unearthed and published an August 1970 letter from a promotion firm working for Lorillard cigarettes. The letter, to an art professor at a New York college, invited the prof's students to help design the packaging for a new cigarette called ``Kicks'' that would be ``attractive to kids.''

Said the letter: ``While this cigarette is geared to the youth market, no attempt (obvious) can be made to encourage persons under twenty-one to smoke. The package design should be geared to attract the youthful eye, not the ever-watchful eye of the Federal Government.''

A Lorillard spokesman told the Journal the company has no knowledge of the project or letter; the founder and then-president of the promotion firm said Lorillard authorized both.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked the surge of teens who took up smoking in the 1980s to massive promotional campaigns by tobacco companies.

In 1980, when cigarette-makers spent $771 million on freebies and giveaways, 5.4 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds started smoking, said the CDC. When the number of teens taking up the habit dropped a couple years later, the tobacco companies spent $3.2 billion on caps, T-shirts, trips, coupons and other promotional items - and teen smoking rebounded. In 1988, 6.3 percent of teens began smoking. That was the same year R. J. Reynolds introduced its cartoon character, Joe Camel, with its transparent pitch to kids.

Momentum seems to be building in Washington in favor of a national campaign to reduce smoking among adolescents. This makes sense: Tobacco kills 3 million people a year worldwide, more than 400,000 a year in this country. These numbers aren't likely to improve significantly if Joe Camel's nose stays under the youth market's tent.

In addition to an informational campaign, stricter enforcement of laws against sales to minors is clearly needed. As a Blacksburg reader of this newspaper, Leonard Uttal, noted in a recent letter, one promising strategy is to outlaw self-service racks of cigarettes. Customers would be required to ask for these products, which would be kept behind counters. This would help reduce minors' access to cigarettes, which are easily shoplifted from racks.

It's a good idea, assuming we're serious about reducing nicotine addiction among impressionable youth. We are serious about that, aren't we?

by CNB