Marlboro Adds Warning on Minors : Tobacco: Philip Morris’ labeling comes as Clinton prepares to take steps to curb underage smoking.

As President Clinton pondered “tough and mandatory” governmental steps to curb smoking by youngsters, the nation’s largest tobacco company added “Underage Sale Prohibited” notices in small type to its cigarette packaging.

Marlboro Lights packages bearing the warning began rolling off production lines Tuesday at all three Philip Morris USA plants.

A news conference unveiling the packaging came a day after Clinton told National Public Radio that he is considering a federal program to combat teen-age smoking. “I think we need a tough and mandatory-type program,” Clinton said in the interview.

“I do not think that is the way we should go,” said Ellen Merlo, a spokeswoman for Philip Morris.

Clinton could announce his program as early as today, when he is scheduled to speak to a Baptist group in Charlotte, N.C., in the heart of tobacco country.

The timing of the Philip Morris announcement was coincidental, Merlo said, adding that Tuesday was chosen because it was the first day all three plants began manufacturing the new packages.

But Edward L. Sweda, senior attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project in Boston, speculated that the company’s aim is to preempt any regulatory move by Clinton or the Food and Drug Administration.

“It’s crystal clear [that] if FDA regulation were not looming this wouldn’t be happening,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s pretty transparent.”

FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler is pushing for the agency to regulate tobacco.

Merlo, the senior vice president for corporate affairs at Philip Morris, said the company’s efforts are preferable to increased government regulation.

“We believe that the right way to approach the issue is by focusing on access,” she said at the company’s Richmond plant.

Plans for the “Underage Sale Prohibited” notice were first announced in June as part of the company’s Action Against Access program. Other aspects of the program include training for store clerks and an end to distribution of free samples.

“Philip Morris shares with many people, including the President, the commitment that minors should not smoke,” Merlo said.

The notice, in type about the size used for newspaper stories, appears on the same side of the package as the federally required warning that cigarette smoking poses a health risk.

“If Philip Morris was serious about this, they would have had a very conspicuous message on the front of the pack, not on the side,” Sweda said.

Merlo said the notice will serve as a useful reminder to store clerks who might forget about the cigarette-buying age threshold: 19 in Arkansas, Alaska and Utah, 18 in every other state.

Philip Morris conducted no test marketing to measure the effectiveness of the notice, but it is considering follow-up studies, Merlo said. “I don’t know that any program can take the place of parental guidance,” she said.

The Marlboro Lights packs with the notice should make their way from plants in Richmond, Louisville, Ky., and Cabarrus, N.C., to stores in six to eight weeks, Merlo said. Other brands such as Merit, Virginia Slims and Benson & Hedges will be phased in by the end of the year.

Exported cigarettes will not include the notice because regulation of tobacco by other countries is inconsistent, she said.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the No. 2 tobacco maker, is looking at what Philip Morris is doing but has yet to change its programs aimed at discouraging underage smoking, said Maura Ellis, a company spokeswoman.