County Maps War Against Smoking : Health: Officials plan to use a share of revenues from the 25-cent-per-pack cigarette tax to make the anti-tobacco message inescapable.

Ventura County officials plan to spend almost $1 million in state funds during the next two years on an anti-smoking blitz that goes beyond simply spreading the word.

The plan, which comes before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, includes a number of possible tactics--everything from urging the Ventura County Fair’s rodeo officials to drop their tobacco sponsor to asking doctors to write “quit smoking” prescriptions for their patients.

The plan also calls for asking newspapers to stop accepting tobacco advertising, using billboards to counteract tobacco advertising and coaching health and education professionals on the dangers of smoking and how to help smokers quit.

“We’re going to make the message inescapable,” said Carlene Maggio, a senior health educator with the Ventura County Tobacco Education and Control Program. Consumers “are already being saturated by information from the tobacco industry.”

Funding for the program comes from a 25-cent tax on cigarettes that voters statewide approved in 1988 as part of Proposition 99. The tax took effect Jan. 1, 1989, and is expected to generate $1.46 billion by mid-1991.

On Tuesday, local program officials will ask the supervisors to approve submitting the plan to the state Department of Health Services for any final changes.

The goal of the tax measure is to reduce the consumption of tobacco by 75% in California by the year 2000. Current estimates show that about 30% of the adult population smokes, said Bill Miley, the county’s program coordinator.

Miley is the first to admit that the program’s anti-smoking message isn’t new. The health hazards of tobacco were first publicized broadly in 1964.

“People who smoke underestimate the risk or they intellectualize the risk to themselves and those around them,” he said. “They say, ‘Oh yeah, tobacco and smoking cause cancer. You got a cigarette?’ ”

The program, which has its office at 3160 Telegraph Road in Ventura, opened last summer and the seven-member staff has begun offering free counseling to smokers who want to quit. But the program’s efforts will intensify early next month as the plan is implemented.

One of the first efforts will be a countywide survey of tobacco advertising on billboards, in newspapers, on bus benches and at local sporting events.

Maggio said the Tobacco Education and Prevention Coalition, a program advisory group, is talking with other anti-smoking groups about circulating petitions urging the rodeo to drop its chewing tobacco sponsor, the U.S. Tobacco Co., which makes Skoal.

The sponsor should be dropped, she said, because it is “selling death and sickness.” Not only does the company advertise its product, it hands out samples during the rodeo.

“The prevalence of smokeless tobacco is on the increase among adolescents,” she said. Youth look to rodeo stars as heroes and that makes the tobacco more attractive to them, she said.

The Ventura County Fair contracts with the Flying U Rodeo in Marysville, said Mike Paluszak, general manager of the fair. Even if the fair sought a different rodeo, it’s likely its sponsors would include tobacco companies, Paluszak said.

The county’s plan also calls for asking the Ventura County Star-Free Press and the Los Angeles Times to drop or reduce their tobacco advertising.

“I wouldn’t think we would,” said Jeff Young, national sales manager for The Times, although he said the decision would be made by the publisher. The tobacco companies already are cutting back on their newspaper advertising because of public pressure, he said.

Ron Spurr, general manager of the Star-Free Press, said “there is not that much tobacco advertising anymore.” He didn’t know if the newspaper would drop the advertising if asked. “I’d have to look at what they’re asking,” he said.

The county’s plan also includes its own advertising. Anti-smoking messages would go on bus benches. Billboards would go up as close as possible to pro-smoking billboards.

A large part of the plan is a massive drive to inform health and education professionals about the dangers of tobacco so they can pass the word on to students, employees and patients and instruct them on how to quit.

A drive is already under way to encourage doctors to give their patients a quit-smoking prescription and a referral to the program’s office for counseling on how to do it.

An order from a doctor carries more weight with patients, and they are more likely to try to quit, said Mary Leu Pappas, a public health nurse with the program.

“Their physician is saying, ‘I care enough about you to prescribe this,’ ” she said.

Once in the program’s office, smokers who want to quit receive counseling, watch videos and have available a mass of information on why they should quit and how they can do it. Then they pick a date and sign a contract indicating that on that day they promise to quit smoking.

“The first three days are the worst,” said Pappas. But they receive tips on how to withstand the urge to smoke, such as chewing gum, drinking water and taking walks.

Under Proposition 99, the county could offer material incentives worth up to $50 to people who quit. But the county has no plans at this time to do that, other than possibly giving away T-shirts, Miley said.

The county’s plan includes a number of other anti-smoking efforts such as developing a speakers bureau and a clearinghouse of information and encouraging smoke-free policies for doctors, hospitals, dentists, schools and businesses.