CIGARETTE CONSUMPTION FALLS, BUT MORE TEENS PICK UP HABIT

WASHINGTON - Americans are rejecting the smoking habit at a
surprisingly rapid rate, a trend that is going global.

But there are signs of increased smoking in poor countries and among
teen-agers and young women in several countries, and deaths blamed on
smoking still are rising worldwide.

U.S. cigarette exports are down 25percent, with 50billion fewer
cigarettes sent abroad in just one year. That is 2.5billion fewer
packs of cigarettes exported annually.

The number of cigarettes sold per person in the United States fell a
record 8percent last year, according to government data and a
Worldwatch analysis. Worldwatch also cites per-capita declines in some
of the heaviest smoking countries: France, Japan and, markedly, China,
whose 1.25billion people smoke one-third of the world's cigarettes.

The anti-smoking campaign credits smoking bans and increased public
awareness of smoking's dangers for the decline. The Agriculture
Department cites higher taxes, price increases to offset a $246billion
tobacco settlement with several states, and the cumulative impact of
35 years of warnings from the surgeon general's office.

The industry says the decline is directly related to the rising price
of cigarettes up 80percent from two years ago.

Smoking has been linked in medical studies to more than 25 diseases,
including heart disease, strokes, respiratory illness and several
forms of cancer.

The World Health Organization plans to seek a treaty to further clear
the global air of tobacco smoke and is promoting World No Tobacco Day
on May31. WHO predicts smoking-related diseases will kill 10million
people annually by the 2020s - two and a half times the current toll.

But that projection now is challenged by declines in cigarette
production, sales and consumption in the United States and scattered
parts of the world.

Smoking in the United States dropped from 2,810 cigarettes per person
annually a decade ago to 1,633 last year - a 42percent drop -
according to calculations by Worldwatch, an environmental research
group. Globally, the decline was 11percent.

Exports for unmanufactured tobacco were down 10.6percent by weight
last year, and U.S. cigarette exports dropped from 201.3billion in
1998 to 151.4billion, according to the Agriculture Department and the
Census Bureau.

Some of the decline is because of production shifts by U.S. companies
to other countries; global production is believed to be up about
1percent. With population increases, per capita smoking still fell
slightly worldwide, from 929 cigarettes in 1998 to 915 last year.

Worldwatch chairman Lester Brown noted the success of advertising in
California aimed at demonstrating loss of sexual potency among smokers
and the spread of smoking bans and higher taxes.

"The land that gave the world tobacco is now leading it away from
tobacco," Brown said.

But not every one believes the world is giving up the
weed.

"That's a bit of an exaggeration," said Heather Selin, tobacco adviser
for the Pan American Health Organization. She said data is incomplete
and the smoking cloud still wafts across the Third World.

Pete Burr, tobacco analyst for the government's Foreign Agricultural
Service, said drops in exports are occurring mostly to Europe,
possibly because U.S. companies are opening plants in Eastern Europe.

Most export markets, particularly Japan, remain strong, Burr
said.

WHO describes a "smoking epidemic" among younger women in Asia. In
Spain and Sweden, surveys show more 15-year-old girls smoke than boys.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says smoking among 18-
to 24-year-olds has been rising, for the first time, to the level of
those age 25 to 44. High school smoking rates are even higher.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says smoking among
young adults, age 18 to 24, has been rising, for the first time, to
the level of those age 25 to 44. High school smoking rates are even
higher."