TOBACCO FIRMS' AID TO MINORITIES POSES DILEMMA FOR ACTIVISTS

TOBACCO FIRMS' AID TO MINORITIES POSES DILEMMA FOR ACTIVISTS

WASHINGTON - RJR Nabisco doled out more than $800,000 over the past two
years to minority-run groups from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to the
Korean American Liquor Market Association of Santa Clara, Calif. Nearly one
in five of RJR's 8,800 tobacco workers are minorities who earn an average of
$45,000 a year.

At Philip Morris, 37 percent of the work force is minority, and the company
last year spent almost $24 million doing business with minority-owned
companies, much of it on ads providing critical revenue for struggling
ethnic papers and magazines.

"We probably could survive without tobacco ads, but it would be difficult,"
said Dorothy Leavell, president of the National Newspaper Publishers
Association, which represents 215 black-run newspapers.

Whether it means sponsorship of an inner-city youth group or backing for an
ethnic festival, cigarette companies have used their millions to make an
influential mark on minority communities, not only giving to charitable
causes but also providing opportunities.

A crucial dilemma

For minority lawmakers, this poses a crucial dilemma as the Senate debates a
tobacco bill: How can they preserve the economic benefits from the tobacco
industry while limiting the devastating health effects of smoking?

Minority members of Congress say they want smoking-cessation programs that
target minority and low-income communities, which bear a disproportionate
share of tobacco's health risks. They also want to ensure that money flows
to researchers interested in exploring the unique smoking habits and
maladies of minority communities.

Native Americans and African Americans have the highest smoking rates in the
nation, and African Americans are more likely than others to die from
smoking-related diseases.

But at the same time, minority lawmakers want to be careful that the myriad
social-service, arts and other programs that depend on tobacco money don't
suddenly lose support.

Health advocates troubled

It is a balancing act that deeply troubles many minority health advocates.

"Implicitly, organizations are saying smoking is all right when they take
that money," said Jane Delgado, president of the National Coalition of
Hispanic Health and Human Service Organizations. "You cannot talk credibly
to Hispanics about cancer or heart disease and be taking those dollars."

Campaign donations flow from the political arms of the nation's tobacco
companies to many black members of Congress, including Sen. Carol
Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., who received $11,000 from 1991 to 1996; Rep. J.C.
Watts, R-Okla., who received $9,000 from 1995 to 1996; and Rep. James
Clyburn, D-S.C., who received $9,500 in that period.

But those contributions are not particularly exceptional. Larger amounts go
to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus, which use the money to pay for the groups' annual conferences and to
support public-policy research. In 1995 and 1996, the RJR Nabisco Foundation
alone reported giving the two groups $187,500.

Still, many say it is simplistic to suggest that the tobacco industry has
bought off minority organizations. Moreover, they say it is unrealistic to
ask these organizations to sacrifice major financial support.

"The U.S. government is hypocritical," said the black newspaper
association's Leavell. "If tobacco is causing the kinds of things it is, why
don't they make it illegal to use the product? Plus, you sure don't see many
organizations taking out anti-smoking ads in our newspapers."

In Congress, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus' working group on tobacco, said he has been meeting with
members of the Hispanic and Asian-Pacific-American caucuses on proposals to
ensure any new legislation includes ways of protecting or replacing tobacco
money flowing into their communities.

The caucuses also want some guarantee that money for anti-smoking efforts is
targeted toward their communities just as the cigarette makers target their
constituents now, whether it is with foreign-language billboards or
sponsorships of ethnic festivals. The minority caucuses are planning to
announce their recommendations in early June.

Any tobacco bill that makes its way out of Congress is likely to include a
new fee that would increase the price of cigarettes to discourage teens from
smoking.

On Wednesday, the Senate rejected a proposed $1.50-per-pack price increase
on cigarettes, deciding that a smaller increase of $1.10 per pack was
enough.

Proposal called regressive

Minority members of Congress have criticized the proposed fee as regressive,
because it would require the poor to pay as much as people who are more
affluent.

To offset that, lawmakers and advocates agree that anti-smoking programs
funded with the new tax money should be focused in ways that specifically
benefit minorities. For example, they want money to go to minority-run
community associations, which they say are best able to design and deliver
anti-smoking messages to minority groups.

"Every tax dollar that is raised in the minority community should go back to
the minority community," said Jeannette Noltenius, executive director of the
Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco.

Advocates and lawmakers also want anti-smoking research money to go to
minority-run medical schools to explore such curiosities as why black
smokers are three times as likely as whites to smoke menthol cigarettes.
Some theorize the cooling quality of menthol allows smokers to inhale more
deeply, enhancing cigarettes' damage.

In the Senate, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has pushed for insertion of minority
provisions in the tobacco bill that may be voted on this week.

But as the crucial bill makes its way through Congress, some health
activists say that too few civil-rights organizations, think tanks and civic
groups have made their voices heard - silence they attribute to years of
tobacco-company largess.

"There is no question that tobacco companies have tried to buy
respectability and legitimacy," said Louis Sullivan, former secretary of
Health and Human Services and now president of Morehouse College's medical
school. "It would certainly be helpful and very appropriate to have clear
statements from more civil-rights and civic organizations."

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Checked-by: "Rolf Ernst"