Chairman or Not, Waxman Still Fumes at Tobacco Companies

THE WAXMAN FILES: Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) has found a new strategy for taking on King Tobacco.

Last year, as chairman of a House subcommittee on health, he put tobacco company executives on the spot at a high-profile congressional hearing. But when Republicans took over the House last fall, they ousted Waxman as chairman and called an end to his anti-smoking crusade.

This week, Waxman let it be known that chairman or not, he has only just begun to fight.

He took to the floor of the House on Monday with a stack of secret Philip Morris documents and for nearly an hour browbeat the industry for allegedly luring children into smoking and not being truthful about the dangers of their products.

Standing at the podium, Waxman read excerpts from a stack of hundreds of internal Philip Morris Cos. documents that he said show that the nation’s largest cigarette company tracked hyperactive third-graders as potential future smokers and applied electric shocks to college students to determine if it would make them smoke more.

“Philip Morris has targeted children and college students, the youngest segment of the market, for special research projects,” Waxman said. “These documents make it crystal clear that we need regulation of tobacco to protect our children from becoming addicted to a life-threatening drug. . . . I hope they will dissuade members of this body from any legislative effort to block that regulation.”

Philip Morris, in a statement, said it could not comment on the documents because it has not seen them. The company also said the allegations are not new, since it has always said that it studied why people smoke.

“That should surprise no one since manufacturers of consumer products want to--and need to--understand why consumers use their products,” the company said. “In fact, we would be criticized as irresponsible if we had not conducted these studies of our products.”

Waxman’s criticism comes as the White House is considering whether to allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco and curtail childhood smoking by banning cigarette vending machines and advertising that appeals to children. Some Republican lawmakers from tobacco-growing states are fighting to block such regulations.

This is not the first time Waxman has publicized private company records.

When he publicized records from Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. last year during his committee investigation, the company subpoenaed him to disclose his source. Waxman is still battling the company in court.

On the House floor, however, he is immune from such legal attacks.

“I can’t hold hearings any more and I can’t hire investigators to work on this issue,” Waxman said. “But I can still speak out.”

For those who missed his theatrics on C-SPAN, Waxman submitted the entire bundle of papers for publication in the official Congressional Record.

*

HE’S IN CHARGE: Like Judge Lance Ito, Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro has taken on a tougher, more strict demeanor when it comes to running the panel’s three weekly meetings.

Fed up with council members who wander in 15 or 20 minutes late for the 10 a.m. meetings, Ferraro vowed recently that he would cancel future meetings if less than 10 members of the 15-member panel--a legal quorum--failed to show up at chambers by 10:15 a.m.

On Tuesday, it was 10:15 a.m. and Ferraro had only nine members in the chambers. He was about to adjourn the meeting for lack of a quorum when Councilman Nate Holden walked in, saving the event.

But that was not the case on Wednesday, when Ferraro waited until 10:45 a.m. and still couldn’t find 10 willing colleagues, forcing him to cancel the meeting and put off all business until Friday.

One City Hall staffer joked that the problem may be that city officials move a bit slower during the hot summer months.

So it was ironic that after the meeting was canceled Wednesday, the city’s communication department used the council audio system to pipe the sound of cats meowing to the tune of “Silent Night” throughout City Hall.

Perhaps it was an attempt to give city officials that winter feeling.

*

BUMPER CARS: Imagine Car A crawling eastbound on Ventura Boulevard at 5 m.p.h. Now picture Car B rolling south on Sepulveda Boulevard at 3 m.p.h. Under present bumper standards, which car will suffer significant damage if it suddenly crashes into the car ahead?

The answer is that both cars would be damaged because federal bumper regulations now protect cars at only 2.5 m.p.h. Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) recently introduced legislation to change that.

Beilenson’s proposal would require all new cars to be equipped with bumpers capable of withstanding damage in accidents at 5 m.p.h. or less. That standard was in effect from 1978 to 1982 but was reduced as part of the Reagan Administration’s effort to ease regulations on the auto industry.

The lower standard was meant to result in lower costs for new cars and better gas mileage as a result of lighter bumpers. But data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicates that all but one of 14 new car models tested recently sustained damage up to $1,056.

“This experiment has been a total failure,” Beilenson said on the House floor earlier this month while introducing his bill. “None of the anticipated benefits of a weaker bumper standard has materialized.”

So if Beilenson has his way, future models of Car A and Car B will emerge from their mishaps with bumpers intact.

*

NOHO, HECK NO: For years, the redevelopment project in North Hollywood has been criticized by some residents and business owners who see it as an expensive, failed attempt to remove blight in the east San Fernando Valley community.

But now some of these critics are complaining about the nickname that the North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has given the theater and arts district within the project. The name is now regularly used by city officials and others.

NoHo, which is a play on the name of the New York City arts district called Soho, refers to the area between Cumpston Street on the north, Tujunga Avenue on the west, Camarillo Street on the south and Cahuenga Avenue on the east.

But some residents and business owners hate the name and complain that it has been imposed on them without their input. Some have even vowed to boycott businesses that display the name.

“We don’t like that sound at all because it sounds like we’re a bunch of gang members,” said Gary Hendrickson, a 52-year resident of North Hollywood and a member of a citizens advisory group for the redevelopment project.

He also said that in Spanish, Noho is a foul word, although he was at a loss to provide the translation.

Jennie Pelton, another member of the citizens advisory group, agrees. “It’s just hideous,” she said. “It sounds like ‘hobo.’ ”

Guy Weddington McCreary, a member of the chamber’s board of directors, defended the name, saying the critics are a vocal minority. “There are always a few people who complain,” he said. “I have heard mainly that a lot of people like it.”

Martin reported from Los Angeles and Lacey from Washington, D.C.