PUBLIC HEALTH: KOOP WON’T LEAD ANTI-TOBACCO CAMPAIGN

      Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop this week "declined
 to become a spokesman for a national coalition of public health
 groups that wants Congress to approve a national tobacco
 settlement, possibly signaling a new rift over the proposed
 deal," Washington Post reports.  In a letter to anti-tobacco
 researcher Dr. Stanton Glantz of the University of California-San
 Francisco, Koop said that the ENACT coalition is "being too meek
 in its approach, and thus stands to lose important measures that
 would reduce smoking by teenagers."  Koop and former Food and
 Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler "had strongly
 criticized the original settlement proposal" and were
 "instrumental in influencing the administration to seek greater
 concessions for the tobacco industry" (see AHL 9/18).
      TOUGH CRITICISM
      Koop wrote to Glantz, "ENACT has asked me to be its
 spokesperson and I cannot be a spokesperson for a program that
 aims so low as far as public health goals are concerned."  The
 Post reports that Koop "took a swipe at ENACT," writing that he
 "can't understand why these public health people are not carrying
 the carrot out further in front of the horse."
 Responding to news that Koop refused to be ENACT's spokesperson,
 National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids' Matthew Myers said, "ENACT
 supports the strongest possible public health plan.  Like Dr.
 Koop and Dr. Kessler, ENACT has endorsed President Clinton's
 proposals ... it's hard to imagine how we're shooting low"
 (Schwartz, 10/24).