SATCHER PRAISES CLINTON ON TOBACCO

LOS ANGELES (AP) Surgeon General David Satcher praised President
Clinton's decision to sue tobacco companies and warned that cigarettes,
cigars and chewing tobacco are "toxins" that steal a child's opportunity
for a healthy life.

Speaking to about 200 people attending a children's health conference on
Thursday, Satcher said everyone has the responsibility to protect children
from deadly influences.

"We need in this country a system that actually promotes healthy
lifestyles, and that includes avoiding toxins like tobacco, excessive use
of alcohol and illicit drugs," Satcher said.

"Children don't decide in utero whether they're going to be exposed to
tobacco, alcohol, or crack cocaine," he added. "Children don't have those
choices."

Clinton announced Tuesday in his State of the Union address that the
Justice Department would sue the tobacco industry in an effort to recover
federal health care costs.

Satcher, who took over as surgeon general in February 1998, also said he
supports Clinton's proposal to increase cigarette taxes by 55 percent.

"Some studies show that for every 10 percent increase in price, there's a 7
percent decrease in smoking with children and 4 percent decrease in
adults," he said.

Satcher also suggested ways to spend the money raised by the tax. He'd like
to see more research done on how to get teen-agers to quit smoking, and
what makes them start in the first place.

"We have not measured yet the impact of smoking in the movies or on TV,
where the hero or heroine is smoking," he said. "I don't see anything that
it has to do with the script, yet we often see them with cigarettes in
their mouth."

Smoking is responsible for more than 400,000 deaths each year, making it
the leading cause of death in the United States, he said.