Tobacco Industry

ANNAPOLIS -- The state's top health official has vowed to find the money for an anti-smoking media campaign this year, despite attempts by legislators and the tobacco industry to restrict spending on the project."

ANNAPOLIS -- The state's top health official has vowed to find the money for an anti-smoking media campaign this year, despite attempts by legislators and the tobacco industry to restrict spending on the project."

Thirteen chiefs and commissioners of fire departments around the country, most representing major cities, have called on the tobacco industry to manufacture fire-safe cigarettes, making use a simple technology that, they say, could save hundreds of lives each year.The coalition, forged by New York's City Fire Commissioner Howard Safir, includes the chiefs of the Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Atlanta, Houston and Miami departments. Also joining the call is the International Association of Fire Chiefs, representing 32,000 departments.

"I have observed over the years," Irving Kristol says, "that the unanticipated consequences of social action are always more important, and usually less agreeable, than the intended consequences." That goes double whenever the social action in question is fueled by zealotry. Zealots are like Wrong-Way Corrigan: No matter where they try to go, they always end up somewhere else.Take cigarette smoking. Yes, social pressure from nonsmokers has doubtless caused some people to stop smoking. But as an important new book about smoking shows, the zealous efforts of anti-smoking crusaders to back the tobacco industry into a corner have so far turned out to be not just unsuccessful but counterproductive.

BEIJING -- Anti-smoking advocates from around the world urged Americans yesterday to resist a proposed settlement with the U.S. tobacco industry, saying their countries would suffer more disease and deaths as a consequence of the deal.Mary Assunta, a Malaysian delegate to the 10th World Conference on Tobacco or Health, said her country has been besieged with U.S. cigarettes and would become even more tempting a foreign target if the $368 billion American settlement is approved."I put the cigarette industry in the same column as mosquitoes, rats and contaminated water," she said.

The real significance of President Clinton's decision last week to attack the marketing of cigarettes to children is that it establishes a principle.If his proposal cuts smoking by kids, that alone will be a substantial achievement. But more important, it would establish the principle that the federal government can regulate the sale of tobacco. That's why the tobacco industry, which professes to favor a voluntary approach, is fighting the president so bitterly.Mr. Clinton has offered the industry a chance to agree on legislation to restrict minors' access to cigarettes.

NEW YORK -- Philip Morris Cos. restated its second-quarter net income yesterday to include a $63 million charge to cover an increase in the tobacco industry's settlement of Texas' lawsuit seeking to recover the costs of treating ill smokers.The maker of Marlboro cigarettes, Miller beer and Kraft cheese said the charge reduced net income to $1.74 billion, or 71 cents a diluted share. Its profit before charges, gains and discontinued operations remained at $2 billion, or 82 cents a share.The New York-based company reported earnings July 21.The tobacco industry agreed in January to settle Texas' lawsuit for $15.3 billion over 25 years.

WASHINGTON -- A chastened Senate voted emphatically yesterday to undo a $50 billion tobacco-industry break that had been slipped into the tax-cut bill signed into law last month.Voting 95-3 to repeal the provision, senators rather contritely agreed to an amendment that unraveled what sponsor Sen. Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, called "a sweetheart deal" for the industry.But the repealer was nearly derailed by an amendment from Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, who tried to limit the fees that can be collected by attorneys hired by the states to press damage claims against the tobacco industry.

With billions of dollars potentially at stake, top state officials and health advocates will square off this week against the tobacco industry and business groups over legislation designed to hurt cigarette manufacturers.Two legislative committees will hold hearings on what is emerging as one of the most heavily lobbied bills of the General Assembly's 90-day session -- a measure designed to help the state win its pending lawsuit against the cigarette companies.The measure, which was crafted by Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., would rewrite state law to undo a key ruling last year by a Baltimore judge that crippled an important element of the state's court case.

WASHINGTON -- Two major health groups -- the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association -- slammed the proposed $368.5 billion tobacco settlement yesterday, saying it isn't tough enough on the tobacco industry.Cancer society officials said they want Congress to approve the deal, but only after making significant changes. The lung association said the whole settlement should be junked.Next week, another key health group, the American Medical Association, will announce its evaluation of the tobacco pact.