Wilson Signs Bill Barring Handouts of Cigarettes : Health: Legislation would prohibit distribution of tobacco products on street corners and in other public places. It is aimed at keeping children from becoming addicted.

Gov. Pete Wilson on Saturday signed legislation prohibiting the handing out of free promotional samples of cigarettes and chewing tobacco on street corners and other places open to the public.

Aimed at preventing children from becoming addicted to tobacco, the bill was the only substantive anti-smoking bill--of more than a dozen introduced--to survive stiff opposition of the well-heeled tobacco lobby and reach Wilson’s desk.

The governor, who occasionally smokes cigars, said by eliminating one easily accessible route to chewing tobacco and cigarettes, the bill by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) took an important step to “protect the health of our children.”

Wilson signed the smoking control bill and about 50 noncontroversial measures as he reached the final stretch of action on about 400 pieces of legislation before his deadline of midnight Monday.

Sales of tobacco products to minors under age 18 long has been illegal, but the law is difficult to enforce on across-the-counter and vending-machine sales.

State tax records indicate that 97 million cigarettes were distributed free in California last year, or more than three for each California resident. Supporters of the bill contend that the giving away of samples has become a popular marketing technique by manufacturers seeking customers in a health-conscious era that is increasingly hostile to smoking.

Effective Jan. 1, it will be against the law to distribute free samples of cigarettes or so-called “smokeless tobacco” in places open to the public, except in bars or other places where children are legally prohibited. Violators will be subject to civil penalties.

The Bergeson measure, supported by physicians, heart, lung and cancer organizations, sailed out of the Senate in July but seemed headed for oblivion in the Assembly.

The bill acquired new momentum in August, however, when controversy erupted over whether Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) had privately counseled the tobacco industry on how to construct a rival bill that would give the appearance of imposing strong controls but, in fact, would not do so.

Brown angrily denied the assertions. The author, Assemblyman Gerald Felando (R-San Pedro), subsequently struck the disputed provisions from the bill and then put it on a back burner for action some other day.

In recent years, the tobacco industry has emerged as an increasingly generous contributor to reelection campaigns of California legislators. During the first six months of this nonelection year, the industry and its trade associations donated $196,000, including $68,000 to Brown.

The figures, compiled by the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UC San Francisco, showed that in 1991 tobacco contributions outstripped those of historically bigger donors, physicians and trial lawyers.