Minority Lung Ailments Up as Smokers Are Wooed

Respiratory disease rates have risen to disproportionately high levels among minority groups in the United States at a time when the tobacco industry is intensifying its efforts to woo minority smokers, health officials said Wednesday.

Public and private health officials at a national meeting in Los Angeles said there is a growing gap between whites and minority groups in their rates of lung cancer, tuberculosis, asthma, pneumonia and other conditions that affect the lungs.

They also described disproportionately high death rates among blacks from non-respiratory but smoking-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancers not involving the lung. And they vowed to launch an educational effort to counteract tobacco promotions in minority communities.

“Cigarettes are legal, advertising is legal, so (tobacco companies) have a perfect right to do what they’re doing,” said Dr. Herbert W. Nickens, director of the federal Office of Minority Health. “But I also think that minority groups, as well as majority groups, have a perfect right to resist in any way we can within the law.”

A tobacco industry official acknowledged the existence of campaigns to reach minorities but denied that such efforts have been stepped up.

Nickens’ office and the American Lung Assn., which together sponsored the national conference, describe it as an unprecedented event, bringing together not only public and private agencies but also representatives of health care organizations from four minority groups--blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans and Indians.

Scheduled to continue through Friday at the Los Angeles Hilton, the conference is aimed at addressing both the high levels of respiratory disease and the paucity of reliable data on the extent of sickness and disease-related deaths.

“We want to state the problems clearly and develop strategies for solving them,” Curtis L. Patton, a professor of epidemiology and public health at Yale Medical School, said at a press conference Wednesday. The forum is to be a launching pad for minorities to get the message out, he said.

Among the federal and lung association statistics cited by the organizers:

- Tuberculosis rates in 1985 were 4.2 times greater among minority groups than among whites; tuberculosis death rates were 5.6 times greater. Among Asian-Americans, the hardest hit group, the case rate is 7.7 times higher than that of the white population.

- Approximately 55% of all deaths among blacks are caused by the major smoking-related diseases--coronary heart disease, certain cancers and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. One American Lung Assn. official said the comparable figure for whites is close to 30%.

- The respiratory cancer death rate among black males since 1950 has risen 2 1/2 times as fast as the rate among white males. Blacks suffer the highest mortality rate from lung cancer than any race in the country.

Health officials speaking at a press conference traced the unusually high rates to a variety of causes including poor access to health care, immigration from countries where tuberculosis is common and widespread use of tobacco.

They said the tobacco industry increasingly is targeting minority groups by sponsoring jazz festivals, sporting events and minority political groups. Others said there has been unusually heavy billboard advertising in minority neighborhoods.

Edward T. McMahon, director of the Coalition for Scenic Beauty, a group that opposes the proliferation of billboards, said $7.2 million of the $7.8 million spent on small-billboard advertising throughout the country in 1985 was spent in black and Latino communities.

Nine of the 10 top billboard advertisers were tobacco or alcoholic beverage firms, he said.

In a telephone interview after the press conference, a tobacco industry spokesman denied that promotions aimed at minority groups are anything new.

Tobacco companies were doing such promotions long before any of the negative publicity occurred, said Gary Miller, assistant to the president of the Tobacco Institute in Washington. “For a long time now, they’ve been dedicated to the cause of minorities, apart from any public relations effort.”

Miller defended billboard advertising.

“What they’re doing is they’ve found a market,” he said, referring to the proven demand for cigarettes. “It’s just like advertising for any product, whether it be peanut butter or clothing. The market’s there. And they’re just trying to reach that market.”

SELECTED RESPIRATORY DISEASE BY RACE There is a disproportionately high rate of respiratory disease among minority group members, health officials argue. One cause cited is smoking, which is believed to be a cause in 90% of all lung cancer cases.

CIGARETTE SMOKING OVER AGE 20 Black males: 40.6% Black females: 31.6% White males: 31.8% White females: 28.3% Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1986 PROJECTED INCREASE IN LUNG CANCER INCIDENCE 1980-1990

Current incidence of lung cancer among whites is 79.3 per 100,000 population; among blacks, the incidence of lung cancer is 125.3 per 100,000. Projected figures indicate a growing discrepancy between whites and blacks. Black Males : 31.8% White Males: 20.7% Source: National Cancer Institute, 1987 TUBERCULOSIS

Total 1985 Reported Cases: 22,201

1985 Tuberculosis Case Rates Per 100,000 Population Asian-Americans: 49.6 Blacks: 26.7 American Indians: 25.0 Latinos: 18.1 Whites: 5.7 Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services