MINORITY SMOKING IS UP

WASHINGTON - A surgeon general's report detailing a dramatic increase in
the use of tobacco among young minorities touched off a new round of
political sparring yesterday between the White House and Congress.

President Clinton used the report to ratchet up pressure on Congress to
adopt legislation to curb underage smoking.

But even as Clinton focused on the details of the problem, leading
Republicans criticized him for not proposing specifics of a solution.

"The president has not provided leadership on the tobacco issue," said
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

"He's provided lots of rhetoric, lots of talk. And he's not shown any real
courage in saying what things can be done, what things must be done in
order to achieve something that will pass," said Lott.

And Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, complained
that even if Clinton refrains from proposing his own tobacco legislation,
he has called for measures like price increases that would bankrupt the
industry and drive young people to marijuana.

Between the political sparring, the day focused on the escalating rates at
which young minorities are smoking.

Surgeon General David Satcher used the annual report to focus for the first
time on smoking among young minorities.

- -- About 20 percent of African-American high-school students smoke. While
they still smoke less than other groups - half the rate of whites - their
rate of smoking jumped by 80 percent from 1991 to 1997.

- -- About 20 percent of Asian-American high-school students smoke, up 17
percent from 1990 to 1995.

- -- About 33 percent of Hispanic high-school students smoke, a 34 percent
increase from 1991 to 1997.

- -- About 50 percent of Native-American high-school students smoke, up 26
percent from 1990 to 1995.

"Unless they are reversed, these increases in tobacco use are a time bomb
for the health of our minority populations," said Satcher. "If tobacco use
continues to increase among minority adolescents, we can expect severe
health consequences to be felt in the early part of the next century."

With about 30 teenagers from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids standing
behind him, Clinton noted that the tobacco industry, to survive, must
attract young people as customers to replace those who quit or die. And he
insisted that it is up to parents and other adults to discourage children
from smoking.

But Lott complained that Clinton is not helping to work out the details of
what would be an historic attempt to punish and regulate the tobacco
industry.

"He's got to quit the critical rhetoric and get in here and . . . help us
fight teenage smoking and deal with the health problems caused by smoking,
but not just view it as, oh, great, this is a cookie jar whereby we can
enlarge government, we can have more taxes."