EXPERTS BAFFLED BY RISE IN TEEN SMOKING

Officials try to snuff out ads, peer pressure

The three girls are 14 years old -- they look not a day older -- and have
been smoking cigarettes since they were 10.

They represent a bewildering puzzle to health authorities.

It's against the rules to smoke on school grounds, so the girls crossed E.
Locust St. before lighting up one day last week.

One cigarette among the three freshmen, passed puff-to-puff as they
shivered in the cold afternoon wind across the street from Milwaukee's
Riverside University High School.

"Marie," "Christine" and "Mandy" are names they chose for the interview
instead of their real names. Their moms know they smoke and don't approve.

"I got caught the first time I smoked," said Mandy. "I got grounded. But
the second time she knew she couldn't do anything about it. She knows, but
she just doesn't want to see it."

Others in their families smoke. "My Dad smokes." "My mom's boyfriend smokes."

Even though smoking is known to cause disease and early death, the growing
number of teen smokers baffles experts seeking ways to stamp out cigarette
and tobacco use among youth.

"Obviously, we need a new anti-smoking message," one psychologist said.

What's fueling the nearly one-third jump over six years in the number of
teenagers admitting to the nasty habit?

The likely ingredients include: peer pressure; low self-esteem; wanting to
be cool; keeping weight down; Joe Camel and the Marlboro man and other
advertising and promotions; smoking by actors on television and in movies;
parental smoking; defiance of adults and authority; and the teenager's view
that the health consequences of smoking are a long way off.

But, one consequence of smoking is not off in the distant, smoky future --
addiction.

"I started because of peer pressure," said Marie. "Everybody I know smokes."

The girls said they smoke four to 10 cigarettes a day.

Do they want to quit?

"Yes." "Yes." "Yes," was the chorus of answers.

Teens get hooked easily, and it's harder for them to break the habit than
adults, said Douglas Jorenby, a clinical psychologist in charge of clinical
services at the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the
University of Wisconsin Medical School.

Smoking teens are under a lot of peer pressure to keep smoking, Jorenby
said. They aren't fully aware of the tragic consequences of smoking, and
being cool is currently more important, he said.

Older smokers trying to quit have supporters who are not sabotaging their
efforts, Jorenby said. The center runs stop-smoking clinics for teens, and
the percentage of teens that go back to smoking exceeds that of adults.

One of the smoking girls spoke the word "addiction," and nobody challenged
that. Still, they think willpower is the issue, not biology.

"If I desperately wanted to quit, I could," said Marie. "Well, I want to,
but I don't want to."

Said Mandy: "I don't want to smoke, but -- I have willpower, but not enough
willpower."

What's the positive side of smoking?

"If I'm under a lot of stress, I chain smoke," answered Marie.

"When I have a problem, if I'm about to fight, I take out a cigarette,"
said Mandy. "I calm down.

"I wouldn't want to be a part of making someone start smoking," she added.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 36.4% of high
school students used some form of tobacco last year, up from 27.5% in 1991.
Among blacks, the numbers rose from 12.6% to 22.7%.

Michael Fiore, director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee tobacco
center, blamed increases in smoking directly on tobacco companies.

"The numbers reflect the pattern of the tobacco companies marketing
successfully to children. With the lack of limits on advertising and little
effective counter-advertising -- as well as the absence of enforcement of
laws preventing children under 18 purchasing cigarettes -- we are leading
another generation of kids into addiction," he said.

The dire warning to kids -- and the one they seem not to get -- is: "Fully
half of those who begin smoking will die prematurely of a disease caused by
that addiction," Fiore said.

So what to do?

"Are we reaching kids? We are not as effective as we want to be. We don't
have all the answers," said Jeff Propp, public health educator with the
Milwaukee Health Department.

"We try to reach them at a level they can accept and understand. But, you
have to second-guess yourself when you look at the climbing numbers.

"We are not standing still. We are trying. It takes time. You cannot just
walk up to a kid and expect him to stop smoking," Propp said.

Stop-smoking services as well as education programs are available to kids,
he said. The Common Council passed a law last month forbidding tobacco
billboard advertising in residential areas, he said.

Also, a proposed federal settlement with tobacco companies seeks to curb
advertising.

Not one of the three smokers has a problem acquiring cigarettes. Sometimes
they walk into a store and buy a pack. Other times, they have an
older-looking friend make the purchase.

Any of the 37% of Wisconsin teens who want help in kicking addiction can
call the Health Department at 286-3616 STYL parameter error Propp said.

Experts agreed that little has been done to stop tobacco advertising to
youths, and a counter-ad campaign is feeble in comparison.

Mike Harryman, public relations director for Hughes, Ruch & Murphy
Advertising Marketing and Communications in Brookfield, said his firm is
developing public service announcements to counter the efforts of tobacco
advertising.

But, the ads have had limited exposure and rely on the largess of
broadcasters for air time.

The ads are being developed free in conjunction with the American Cancer
Society, American Lung Association and Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of
Wisconsin.

As advertising has undoubtedly contributed to tobacco abuse among teens,
Dick McDonald, managing officer for BVK/McDonald, said an effective ad
campaign could offset much of the damage.

But McDonald said he was unaware how to wage a campaign that would be
effective in reaching kids.

"How do you reach that 10-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl? What research
tells me what works? There would have to be a lot of trial and error to
discover the appeal avenue to get there," he said.

"We need to give adolescents a new message, but we don't have that message
yet," said Heather Cecil, assistant professor in the department of
psychiatry and behavioral medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

She said when she did a study of the health warning labels on cigarette
packages she found that teenagers did not believe them or did not feel they
applied to them.

Also, many did not know what carbon monoxide was.

Cancer, a consequence of smoking, was "far too remote for kids. Adolescents
don't have a real appreciation of harmful consequences, and it is hard to
believe that something will happen in the future.

"They tend to live here and now," she said.

The "easy solution" to reducing teen smoking is to raise the price of
cigarettes, Cecil said.

Parents need to stop smoking too and get involved in their children's
lives, she said.

"Give them a future to work for. Promote a healthy lifestyle. We need to
get the message across that smoking is not a cool thing to do," said Cecil.
"Teens don't realize how addicted they are until they try to quit. It is
very sad."

Said Christine, "Cigarettes could go to $5 a pack, that'd be OK."