PRICE JUMP URGED TO CURB TEEN SMOKING

YOUTH: The National Cancer Policy Board recommends increasing the cost of a
pack of cigarettes by $2.

WASHINGTON-The National Academy of Sciences urged Thursday that the price
of cigarettes be boosted by at least $2 a pack, calling it "the single most
effective way" to keep children from smoking.

The report, which goes significantly beyond earlier tobacco-control
proposals, could buttress support for tough new action against tobacco as
Congress prepares to debate what to do about smoking.

The recommendation came in a report by the Academy's National Cancer Policy
Board. The board said particular attention needs to be paid to suppressing
smoking among teen-agers and tempering demand for tobacco overseas.

Raising an idea the tobacco companies are sure to fight, the board also
urged stiffer penalties against individual manufacturers whose products
remain popular with kids.

"Although public debate has intensified, tobacco use among youths has
escalated," said the report. "Smoking rates among youths have increased for
four years in succession.

"Today's tobacco users will become tomorrow's health statistics," the
authors added. About 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related
illnesses.

The academy board included 22 physicians, academics and researchers from
across the nation.

The latest study comes on the heels of several events that tobacco
opponents believe could help tip the fight in their favor. One Wednesday,
the Justice Department announced that a California biotechnology company
had pleaded guilty to conspiring with Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. to
breed plants with twice the dose of nicotine.

In December, the House Commerce Committee released more than 800 tobacco
industry documents that had been secret. The papers revealed that tobacco
companies went to considerable lengths to protect their product and keep
Washington at bay.

Few of the ideas contained in the report are entirely new.

In addition to the tax hikes, the board calls for the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration to more aggressively regulate nicotine and thus cigarettes.
It said Congress should pass legislation to both "strengthen and clarify"
the FDA's role.

The report also calls for tough restrictions on advertising to keep
children from beginning to smoke. And it urged that the United States spend
up to $150 million to help create, support and promote tobacco-control
programs in other countries.

Each of those ideas will face problems in Congress, where there is growing
skepticism about whether a deal to control tobacco can be reached.

President Clinton has endorsed a $1.50-per-pack increase in the price of
cigarettes, but even the tobacco industry's biggest opponents have not
called for a $2 increase.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Clinton and his aides agree with
the board that raising the price of cigarettes is critical to reducing
smoking. But he said economists differ on how much the rate will drop for a
particular price rise.

Steve Duchesne, a spokesman for the tobacco companies - Philip Morris, RJ
Reynolds, Brown & Williamson and the Liggett Group - said he could not
comment directly on the study because he had not seen it. But he defended a
proposed $368.5 billion national tobacco settlement the companies have
tentatively agreed to as the best device for attacking youth smoking.