POLISH PHYSICAN SAYS EASTERN EUROPE SMOKING ITSELF TO DEATH

WASHINGTON -- (RFE/RL) A Polish physician and anti-smoking crusader says
Eastern Europe is in the midst of a great health catastrophe due to the
region's high rate of smoking.

Witold Zatonski, director of Warsaw's Curie Memorial Cancer Center, says
the former socialist countries of Europe have the highest death rate from
smoking in the world and the situation is poised to become even worse.

The World Health Organization estimated that the death toll in the region
was about 700,000 in 1995. In Russia alone, an estimated 280,000 people now
die annually from smoking, most as a result of either heart disease or
cancer. That is a smoking-related death rate more than three times the
global average.

In an interview with RFE/RL, Zatonski said the situation in the region is
worsening due largely to the aggressive and effective marketing push into
the region by American tobacco companies. Zatonski says he is dismayed by
the "sophisticated ways" of promoting and advertising American cigarettes
in the region, including strategies that target women and children in
particular.

Zatonski says some billboards in Poland sponsored by the American tobacco
firm RJ Reynolds-the makers of Camel cigarettes-even feature children,
something that would be illegal in the United States.

"I love America and I don't have anything against free trade. But I don't
think tobacco is something we need in Eastern Europe. And we need to stop
this from getting into the hands of our children," Zatonski says. He says
that about 10,000 children in Eastern Europe start smoking every day. "It
is not just a current problem, but it [will be] a problem for us for many
years if we do not put a stop to it," Zatonski says.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer says he is "outraged" by the
marketing methods being used by American tobacco companies in the region.
Palmer, who is himself an anti-smoking activist and a businessman, told
RFE/RL that over a billion dollars every year is being spent by American
tobacco firms in the region and that it is having a "very dramatic effect."
"They are wrapping the American flag around these death sticks. These
things of addiction and death. It is a real outrage....I think this is
immoral, and as a businessman, unethical," Palmer says.

Experts say part of the reason for the aggressive push into Eastern Europe
by American tobacco companies is due to legal problems and a steady decline
in the smoking rate among adults in the U.S. Last summer, the tobacco
companies tentatively agreed to a multimillion dollar settlement with the
U.S. legal and public health establishment. The settlement, which must
still be approved by the U.S. Congress and signed by the president,
provides terms under which the tobacco companies agree to pay about $368.5
billion to various state and public health funds, openly acknowledge that
tobacco is an addictive substance, permit substantial federal control over
their products and abide by numerous restrictions on their advertising.

However, the settlement does not include limitations or conditions on the
sale of U.S. tobacco products abroad. Many industry analysts say this is
exactly the loophole through which the firms will finance a large part of
the settlement. U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) is now trying to
legislate what the settlement left out. Last week, McCain introduced the
nation's first comprehensive anti-smoking bill for debate in the U.S.
Senate.

Palmer is leading a group of health coalitions which are urging the U.S.
Congress to add provisions to the legislation, including prohibiting
tobacco companies from advertising their products to minors abroad, and
obtaining money from the American tobacco firms to establish anti-smoking
centers in the region, including Russia and Ukraine.

Palmer says the American tobacco companies are using the region's
fascination with the West to help sell cigarettes. "The tobacco companies
are basically saying if you want to be American, you should smoke
American," Palmer says. As an example, Zatonski says that in Poland, L &
M-manufactured cigarettes are labeled as "really American" and free.

(1998 RFE/RL)