Tobacco Documents Online

THE NEW YORK TIMES - April 9, 19'82' `Worn-Out' Wa~nings on'Cigar-ettes r Some years ago the audience at a screening of • overlooked. That is one reason some Congressmenn an anti-smoking commercial1 made by an, actor with and three major health organizations propose rotat- lung cancer was so unnerved!by his plight they dove as one for their cigarettes. The response was pre- d'ictable. Given a choice between cigarettes and! a) eaaacerba~t'ed' nerves, b) growing f'atorc) d'yingat10¢ instead of 103 - the commonly perceived I alter- natives - the hard-core cigarette smoker will' pickk up the pack. Yet how about thosetoo young to have developed a serious habit? The persistent warning that ciga- rette smoking is dangerous to health has apparently had a salutary effecG on teen-agers. A Federal study of'high school seniors shows a sharp andlcontinu'ing decline in daily smoking. But the same message in the same place year after year suffers what the advertising industry calls ""wear-0ut'"-the overly familiar Is eventually .ing warnings for cigarette packages and ads.. Strongly worded and' specific, they woulld' spelll out the threats that lurk i'n that' little box or soft pack. In, mid-March, soon after Surgeon General Everett Koop, called smoking °'the most iimportant healthissueofour time," the Administration ex-pressed'enthusiasm }lor new warnings. Now, though, that enthusiasm, has apparently waned. The rotating, warnings are'"being studied." Surely an Ad'ministration so concerned' with the health hazards created for teenragers by pz^escrip- tion contraceptives shoul'd, be equally concerned with the hazards created by tobacco - especially given the overwhelming evidence about sznoking. Why the eagerness to preach penalties for teenLage sex - and hesitancy about those for.cigarettes? ~~ ~ ` TiNA