Koop tells Clinton to ``stay tough'' on tobacco

WEST TISBURY, Mass. (Reuter) Former U.S. Surgeon General C.
Everett Koop urged President Clinton on Sunday to be tough with
tobacco companies in any settlement of classaction lawsuits against
the tobacco industry. ``I encouraged him to stay tough on tobacco,''
Koop, a leading tobacco critic, said. ``The look in his eye said he's
going to stay tough.'' The two men had a brief, impromptu meeting at
Alley's General Store on the resort island of Martha's Vineyard.
Clinton had stopped by to buy coffee, blueberry muffins and peaches.
Koop, surgeon general under Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and
George Bush, strolled over after leaving a nearby church and was
taken in to meet Clinton. Presidential aide Bruce Lindsey said the
meeting had not been planned. Clinton has yet to adopt a final
position on the landmark $368.5 billion settlement reached in June by
tobacco firms and state attorneys general. The agreement is subject
to congressional approval. In July, Koop and David Kessler, a former
head of the Food and Drug Administration, urged Congress to start
afresh in crafting a national tobacco control policy. They said the
tobacco settlement in its current form was ``flawed'' and would do
little to combat smoking. A White House official said earlier in
August that Clinton would demand that tobacco companies boost the
proposed settlement by at least $50 billion to offset a special
industry tax break. Under the settlement, tobacco companies agreed to
pay billions of dollars to settle smokingrelated lawsuits brought by
individuals and states. They also agreed to drastic curbs on their
advertising and marketing and the payment of cash penalties if they
failed to meet targets for reducing youth smoking. In exchange, they
would be protected from certain categories of lawsuits.

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