Big Tobacco Agrees Cigarettes Are Addictive, Resists Tough Controls

      GENEVA (AP) - Conceding that cigarettes are addictive and deadly, top tobacco companies said Thursday they would accept some form of global control but resisted tough measures like advertising bans and tax hikes.

      ``We agree that smoking is addictive and causes disease in smokers,'' said David Davies, vice president of corporate affairs of Philip Morris Europe, at the start of unprecedented public hearings on the World Health Organization''s planned convention on tobacco control.

      It was one of the most explicit admissions to date by a Philip Morris executive that cigarette smoking is not a matter of free choice. Under pressure from a growing tide of lawsuits, the tobacco giants have tended to argue that, although difficult, adults should still be able to quit.

      ``The message of the public health authorities is our message,'' Davies claimed at a news conference.

      A key representative of another major manufacturer, British American Tobacco, acknowledge the addictive nature of cigarettes, and the world''s largest maker, Chinese National Tobacco Corp., agreed that smoking is harmful to health.

      But anti-smoking campaigners dismissed the comments as mere public relations hype.

      ``The tobacco industry will stop at nothing,'' said Matt Myers of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. ``It has staged the most devastating coverup of scientific evidence. It has preyed on our kids and lied to the governments. It has manipulated nicotine and our political system.''

      Myers joined leaders of the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, American Medical Association and American Public Health Association to appeal to the Clinton administration to take the lead in pushing for a global convention with teeth.

      ``As home to the largest multinational tobacco company on the globe, Philip Morris, we believe the United States has a special responsibility to take a leadership role,'' the organizations said. ``It is no more acceptable to allow Philip Morris and the other tobacco companies to addict children and spread disease and death in Asia, Africa, Latin America than it is in the United States.''

      Negotiations start Monday between WHO''s 191 member governments on the nitty gritty of the proposed treaty. Current options include a total ban on advertising and sponsorship by tobacco companies; tougher measures to prevent young people from starting; bans on smoking in public places; tax hikes to make cigarettes more expensive and measures to discourage production.

      U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher said the U.S. delegation would ``work to significantly restrict advertisem?ts - especially those directed toward children,'' - but stopped short of advocating a total ban.

      In a statement, Satcher said U.S. officials also wanted to protect nonsmokers from second-hand smoke and to combat smuggling.

      The WHO convention is meant to enter into force by 2003. The U.N. health agency hopes it will stem the toll from cigarettes, which currently stands at 4 million premature deaths per year and is expected to rise to 10 million by 2030.

      In speeches to the WHO hearings, representatives of Philip Morris, BAT and the Chinese corporation all stressed their desire to work with WHO on issues like underage smoking.

      Although all tried to be nice about the proposed convention, the bottom line was clear: international regulation should be limited.

      ``The challenge for us all is to develop regulatory regimes around the globe that recognize the tension between public health goals of eliminating smoking altogether and the right of responsible manufacturers to sell, and adults to consume a legal product,'' said Davies, of Philip Morris, which manufacturers Marlboro.

      BAT''s head of science and regulation, Christopher Proctor, made it plain that WHO should not overstep its responsibilities.

      ``The vast majority of regulatory steps in the manufacture, sale, promotion and use of tobacco can only work at national level,'' he said. ``Imperialistic approaches that try to impose the values and priorities of one country on another are invariably unworkable,'' said Proctor.

      ``Human beings have used tobacco for thousands of years. Today, with near-universal awareness of the health risks, a billion adults choose to smoke.''

      Still Proctor - who said he smoked 20 cigarettes a day and so could be classed as addicted - said that ``as a parent, I don''t want my children to smoke.''

      When pressed at a news conference about a ban on sports sponsorship, Proctor merely said that BAT ``will look at it.''

      Among the most poignant testimony of the 60 organizations delivering five-minute statements came from the Dutch Nonsmokers Association.

      ``Both my mother and father smoked,'' said Jean van der Welde. ``The story of my life is as a tobacco victim. I was a low birth-weight baby; I rejected my mother''s milk; I had my first asthma attack at 3 months.''

      ``I had to do without the fun things like music and ballet lessons as they cost as much per month as cigarettes per week, and even without necessities like proper food and dental care,'' said van der Welde.

      ``A small fortune was burned on cigarettes.''

     

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