HEALTH AGENCY'S NEW HEAD DECLARES WAR ON SMOKING AMONG KIDS

GENEVA -- The World Health Organization's incoming leader, alarmed by the
vulnerability of children to cigarettes in the developing world, has
declared the protection of young people from smoking a policy priority.

Gro Harlem Brundtland, a physician and three-time Norwegian prime minister,
said yesterday she would fight against children being drawn into smoking in
the developing world for lack of legislation against this -- unlike in much
of the West.

Similar legislation is needed in developing countries and the health
organization is prepared to help, said Brundtland, who will be elected
formally tomorrow as chief of the organization.

"Tobacco has to be fought now because the children and young people are
becoming influenced now," she said before the stant of the World Health
Assembly where 191 member states will chart new priorities for the
50-year-old body.

"We will have to tell the world why it is dangerous and give advice on how
to deal with it on a regulatory fashion because governments have to pass
laws like we have done in Europe and the United States," said Brundtland,
58.

Her outspoken comments suggest that tobacco firms, facing hostile
legislation and lawsuits in the West and expanding into developing markets
to make up for reduced consumption at home, could find themselves up
against a new front at WHO.

"Tobacco is a big killer. There's no question about it," Brundtland said.
"The worst part of it is that it can reach children's minds and invite
children into something at an age when they don't have a free choice."

The tobacco industry is accused of flogging cigarettes to young people
overseas and of concealing its addictive nature.

Brundtland, a skilled politician who is an outsider to the U.N. system,
faces the thankless task of reviving one of the United Nations' sleepier
agencies. She officially takes office July 21.