WARNING LABEL URGED FOR CIGARS

Surgeon general points to teen use, health risks

WASHINGTON -- Cigars are as deadly as cigarettes and widely used by
teenagers yet face virtually no federal regulation, government health
officials said yesterday, recommending a mandatory national warning label
for the first time.

Requiring health warnings on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco but not cigars
sends the wrong message, Surgeon General David Satcher said.

"The absence of labels on cigars implies cigars are different and don't
carry the same risk," Satcher said.

Top officials at the Health and Human Services Department hope the report by
its inspector general will push another agency, the Federal Trade
Commission, to require such warning labels. The FTC has been considering the
matter since April, but has yet to announce a decision.

The FTC has the power to require the labels on its own, although it plans to
report to Congress on the issue this spring. Most boxes already include a
label required under a settlement of a California court case.

"Why do you need another one?" asked Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar
Association of America.

Critics respond that the California labels are not strong enough or
consistently used.

Satcher has been urging the FTC to require labels for some time. "It's
frustrating that we have not made more progress on this issue," he said.

Many cigar smokers discount the health risks.

"I often think of them as producing less risk in terms of lung cancer than
with cigarettes," said Michael Burnstein, 30, of New York City, who quit
smoking cigarettes but still enjoys an occasional cigar.

Montgomery Kosma, 31, an attorney from Annandale, Va., also smokes a cigar
every few weeks. He figures he and other smokers can evaluate the risks on
their own.

The National Cancer Institute last year reported that although cigar smokers
inhale less smoke than cigarette smokers, cigars can be just as toxic
because they contain up to 90 times as much of some carcinogenic elements as
cigarettes. And with higher quantities of such toxins, cigars can create
even more harmful secondhand smoke.

Regular cigar smokers greatly increase their risk of mouth, throat and lung
cancer, the report found.

Satcher and others say a warning label alone will not do much unless it is
part of a larger effort to shift cultural attitudes. He is now working on a
public awareness campaign on the dangers.

In fact, beyond labels, the Inspector General's Office recommended that
Satcher develop an "action plan" for educating the public about cigars,
which have enjoyed a renaissance in the 1990s after years of public scorn.