Health board unveils plan to cut tobacco use

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The state Board of Health has unveiled an eight-point plan to curb tobacco usage among Oklahomans that includes limiting teen-agers' access to cigarette vending machines and harsher penalties for store employees who repeatedly sell tobacco products to minors.

The proposal unveiled Thursday also would prohibit smoking in all public-access and workplace areas and allow communities to implement more restrictive tobacco ordinances than those allowed by existing state laws.

Current law pre-empts cities from implementing tobacco ordinances stricter than Oklahoma law.

"The tobacco industry is somewhat wounded," said Kevin Pipes, special assistant to the state health commissioner. "We now have a greater opportunity to remove legal barriers that favor the industry and significantly impact the rate of tobacco use."

About 575,000 Oklahomans use tobacco. About 25 percent of state adults between the ages of 19 and 79 smoke cigarettes.

A recent study indicated that 21 percent of middle school students and 40 percent of high school students regularly use cigarettes or smokeless tobacco. And according to the state Health Department, Oklahoma has the ninth- highest percentage of smoking- related deaths in the United States.

Pipes believes passing the health boards initiatives will be difficult.

"The tobacco industry has numerous lobbyists in the state ...

and a historic influence with our legislators," he said.

Tobacco lobbyist, Richard Huddleston of Guthrie, said he wasn't aware of the health boards proposals, and was not allowed by his contract to talk to the media.

Pipes said the tobacco industry was weakened by the historic legal liability settlement guaranteeing $2.3 billion in annual payments to Oklahoma over the next 25 years.

The board specifically wants to change state law to bar the distribution of free tobacco samples to adults and minors. A companion measure would prohibit the manufacture and sale of any pack or container of cigarettes containing fewer than 20 cigarettes.

The Health Department places the direct and indirect costs of tobacco use in Oklahoma at more than $1 billion a year.

The health board's initiatives now will go to the 2001 legislative session.