TOP STORIES
	NEWS SUMMARY
	U.S.
	WORLD
	BUSINESS
	TECHNOLOGY
	SCIENCE
	HEALTH
	ENTERTAINMENT
	SPORTS
	WEATHER
	LOTTERY
	HOROSCOPES

W E A T H E R   Enter city or ZIP code Example: Chicago, IL or 60622

News books In stock. Fast delivery. - Borders.com -  Search for :

By Joanne Kenen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When states wrested billions of dollars from the tobacco industry to pay for the ill effects of smoking, renovating a morgue wasn't exactly what public health advocates had in mind.

But morgue construction in North Dakota, along with sidewalk repairs in Los Angeles, car tax reductions in Rhode Island and teacher retirement funds in Oklahoma are among the myriad ideas that have surfaced in state governments for spending the $206 billion in tobacco settlement funds the big cigarette companies will pay out over 25 years.

Some anti-tobacco groups are appalled, and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and the American Heart Association released a report Thursday tracking state spending blueprints so far, and urging the federal government to step in.

``Unless the states reverse course, the real losers will be our nation's children and the states' taxpayers who will pay to care for another generation of sick adults lured into tobacco addiction in their teens,'' said Cass Wheeler of the American Heart Association.

The groups have not demanded that the states use all the money on tobacco prevention and smoking cessation, and they said some of the other spending plans -- college scholarships, public health, school repairs -- were laudable.

But they said that failing to devote adequate money from the late 1998 lawsuit settlement to anti-smoking programs was squandering a historic opportunity, particularly when some states like California and Oregon are demonstrating that those programs can work.

The Senate in March went on record supporting the states' rights to spend the money as they see fit and rejecting any federal claim to a share of the money under Medicaid law.

The House has not yet taken a stand, and the issue is now tied up in an emergency spending bill for Central American hurricane relief which in turn has gotten entangled in the debate over emergency spending for Kosovo.

Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said the mounting evidence that the states are not doing what they said they would may shift the debate in the Senate. But the vote last time was 71-29, so change is an uphill battle.

The White House strongly supports dedicating substantial funds to fighting tobacco and President Clinton in a statement Thursday said he was ``disappointed that so few states are devoting tobacco settlement funds to reducing youth smoking.''

``We must act now,'' he said. ``Every day, 3,000 children become regular smokers and 1,000 will have their lives cut short.''

According to the report, only a few states have dedicated substantial amounts of the money to new anti-smoking or tobacco farm aid programs. They include Washington, Maryland, Montana and, surprisingly since it is a tobacco-growing state, Virginia.

Eight other states are considering aggressive anti-smoking programs but decisions aren't final.

However, 16 states have decided to spend from zero to less than two percent of the funds on smoking prevention. And most other states have either enacted or are considering plans that either reject smoking programs altogether, lump them into bigger public health pots that may or may not end up addressing smoking, or put off decisions until next year.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Other top stories

-	NATO Casts Doubt, Doesn't Deny, Bomb Error
-	U.S. Senate Republicans Back Gun Show Checks
-	U.S. Consumer Prices Soar, Rate Rise Feared
-	Russian Deputies Set For Yeltsin Impeachment Vote
-	U.S. Appeals Court Casts Doubt On Clean-Air Rules
-	Sears Settles U.S. Child Labor Charges
-	Clinton Kicks Off Big-Bucks Fundraising Trip
-	Hillary Clinton Says Senate Decision Coming Soon
-	Colorado Shooting Victim Just Wants Apple Juice