Washington should drive that point home by using aid programs as leverage. THE acknowledgment by Philip Morris Cos. Inc. that cigarette smoking is not only unsafe but addictive is a jarring whiff of candor. The tobacco companies have come a long way since their executives vowed before Congress that they were unaware of causing any harm. It is time for the Food and Drug Administration to regulate their dangerous products. Philip Morris admits the threats to health of its product in a newly launched Internet page that includes numerous links damning smoking in even stronger terms and providing tips on how to quit.
Smokers are far more likely to develop serious diseases, like lung cancer, than nonsmokers.
Jell-O, Maxwell House coffee and Oscar Mayer meats, for example. TV commercials to that effect have begun to air. Meanwhile, states are struggling to keep minors from picking up the smoking habit. The number of Hawaii stores selling cigarettes to minors has dropped from 44 percent in 1996 to 11.3 percent, contrary to erroneous information in an American Medical Association peer-review journal. Despite that progress, smoking-related illnesses will remain one of the country's major problems as long the tobacco industry succeeds in hooking youngsters on nicotine.