T A B L E++T A L K

Barbie: Is there any other toy that parents hate more? Weigh in on Mattel's bombshell and other evil toys in Mothers

- - - - - - - - - -

R E C E N T L Y

Dear Daughter: Go to jail. Love, Mom
By Lori Leibovich and Dawn MacKeen
Pro-family advocates would rather pass judgment on Monica Lewinsky's mom than on the government forcing her to testify against her child
(04/08/98)

The water lilies look splotchy up close
By Polly Shulman
The artist is the hero in these sensuous children's books
(04/07/98)

The fun police
By Diane Lore
Being your kid's killjoy isn't as fun as it's cracked up to be
(04/06/98)

Women beware women
By Katie Roiphe
Our ongoing national catfight has revealed an unpleasant truth: Women have always betrayed each other
(04/03/98)

Second Thoughts: Nice Guys
By Sallie Tisdale
In the wake of the Arkansas schoolyard killings, a mother ponders guns, children, and the adults who bring them together
(04/02/98)

BROWSE THE HOT FLASH ARCHIVES

- - - - - - - - - -

Mamafesto
By Camille Peri
Why it's time
for Mothers Who Think

- - - - - - - - - -

BY DAWN MacKEEN | Last year a group of African-American religious leaders blamed Big Tobacco for the increase in cigarette smoking among black youth. They pointed to advertisements such as the hip-hop Joe Camel displayed in their neighborhoods and complained of what they saw as an industrywide plot to seduce black youth into the deadly world of cigarettes. Their concern, it turns out, was on the money: Last week, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that there has been an 80 percent increase in the number of black high school students smoking since 1991.

Although teen smoking is on the rise not only in the African-American community -- the study also found a 30 percent increase among whites and Hispanics -- the new figures dismantle what had been a public health success story. For years, African-American teens were not lighting up in large numbers, and, in fact, had been decreasing their usage.

Salon spoke with Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the controversial former surgeon general -- who was kicked out of the Clinton administration for advocating masturbation as the safest form of sex -- about the current state of health education, the .role advertising plays in luring smokers and why she still supports the president.

Given the fact that the dangers of smoking are widely known, why has cigarette smoking increased among high school students?

It's our fault. We're fussing and being mad at the tobacco companies, but we have not educated our children -- we've left them susceptible. And the tobacco industry is the one doing the educating about smoking -- not us.

Tobacco companies lure teens into what I call the "5-S" club by showing images of people who are Slim, Sexy, Sophisticated, Sociable and Successful. Isn't that what all young people want to be?

Do you think the hip-hop Joe Camel ads influence young black teens?

Without question I feel that the hip-hop groups and Joe Camel ads influence what goes on in African-American population.

Why are teens so influenced by these ads?

I don't think it's only teens who are so easily influenced. We are too. We know that if you haven't started smoking by the time that you're 19, there's a 90 percent chance you never will. I think that cigarette companies know that if they let me get old and decrepit, they aren't going to induce me to smoke, so why work on me? It's far better to work on young people who are more susceptible and far more likely to become addicted.

How would you propose educating children and teens about the dangers of smoking?

You have to use the same marketing tactics that the tobacco companies use -- ads -- and target not only kids, but grandma and grandpa and ma and aunts and uncles and the whole community to make them understand the responsibility they have to prevent smoking. We've got to get very aggressive and begin to have a comprehensive health education program as a part of our school system so we can educate all children, from kindergarten to 12th grade.

Should education be tailored to specific communities?

Yes. With the African-American community I would use the churches an awful lot more, use the radio stations that they listen to and use athletes they respect to get out the anti-smoking messages.

The African-American community must be devastated that there has been such an increase in smoking among black teens.

I'm not sure that the African-American community is that upset. If you look at everything -- at what's happening with teenagers and AIDS, with teenage pregnancy, tuberculosis and all of those sexually transmitted diseases -- as far as the African-American community can see, these things kill more people than cigarette smoke. They aren't thinking of the long term.

Do you think that teens believe that there's no real danger from smoking, that they are somehow invincible?

We went around for a while beating our chests thinking that smoking was going down and now we find that it's rising at a very rapid rate. Somewhere along the way we've dropped the ball. We've all accepted the fact that smoking causes cancer, but our young people do not think of things 10, 20, 30 years down the line. They don't even think about engaging in high-risk sexual behavior or the possibility of having a baby within 9 months. How can we expect they're going to comprehend that smoking will give them cancer in 30 years?

I think they start smoking and feel that they can quit whenever they feel like it. I don't think they plan to smoke forever. In fact, during my short stay as surgeon general a book came out on youth and smoking and I think that that's what the study said: If you really survey teens, most of them feel that they can quit whenever they want to but if you go back a year later and look at them, 90 percent of them have not, but they all say that they'd like to. Tobacco is addictive and we're not marketing the information that we have correctly.

N E X T+P A G E: Rating President Clinton

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PHOTO AP/WIDE WORLD