SURVEY: MOST SMOKERS TOO OPTIMISTIC

CHICAGO - Despite years of research and publicity about the
dangers of cigarettes, most smokers don't believe they run a
higher-than-average risk of heart disease and cancer, a national
survey found.

The telephone survey of 3,031 people -- 737 of them smokers -- was
reported in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association.

A firm commissioned to conduct the 1995 survey found that only 29
percent of smokers believed they had a higher-than-average risk of
suffering a heart attack, and only 40 percent believed they had a
higher-than average risk of cancer.

Among heavy smokers -- more than 40 cigarettes daily -- only 39
percent and 49 percent acknowledged the risks, respectively.

The risks were least appreciated by smokers 65 and older, by less
educated smokers and by lighter smokers.

``Cigarette smoking causes more preventable deaths from cardiovascular
disease and cancer than any other modifiable risk factor,'' said the
authors of the report, Dr. John Z. Ayanian and Paul D. Cleary of
Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

``Smokers who quit reduce their risk of these conditions and prolong
their lives substantially, but approximately 48 million U.S. adults
continue to smoke.''

A spokesman for a consumer education group concerned with health risks
said the survey belies a popular belief, supported by the tobacco
industry, that adult smokers know and accept the risks of their habit.

``The problem with `They know that it's dangerous' is now we're
hearing that everything is dangerous -- pesticides, plastics, cell
phones, NutraSweet, gasoline, the insidious chemicals in our water and
air,'' said Dr. Gilbert L. Ross, medical director of the American
Council on Science and Health. He said people tend to file such
warnings away and not think about them.

``Well, tobacco IS dangerous,'' he said. ``Tobacco, or smoking, kills
500,000 people in this country every year, and God knows how many
worldwide. That's the message that we want to get across.''