EDITORIAL: BLOWING SMOKE

It is hard not to fume about Attorney General Dennis Vacco's starring role
in anti-smoking ads now airing around New York State. The ads feature Mr.
Vacco lecturing about the perils of teen-agers smoking. While they may be
good for Mr. Vacco, who is running for re-election, most experts on
teen-age smoking believe that the last thing we need is some adult,
particularly a politician, lecturing on why tobacco is bad.

What makes this particularly distressing is that the $150,000 for this
campaign comes from state funds that were supposed to use the "most current
research" in getting young people's attention about how cool tobacco isn't.
Experts deem pronouncements like Mr. Vacco's among the least effective
approaches. That is why these spots, and his commandeering of the funds,
have drawn the opposition of The American Cancer Society, the American
Heart Association and other anti-smoking organizations.

The Vacco ads are particularly galling because the Attorney General was a
late convert in the states' lawsuit against the tobacco industry. Only two
years ago he suggested that such an action would be like filing a complaint
against the dairy industry to get money for treating people with high
cholesterol.

For all practical purposes, Mr. Vacco's public-service ads are aimed not so
much at teen-agers as at his own potential voters. The ads should be pulled
from the air and paid for out of Mr. Vacco's campaign funds.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company