Gruesome photos won't deter smokers

Like Chicago Alderman Edward Burke, I have been a longtime foe of tobacco.

Decades before dozens of the tobacco industry's dirtiest secret memos were leaked to the public, even years before the U.S. surgeon general began to warn the public about the health hazards of smoking, I knew cigarettes were seriously nasty.As a child in a house of smokers, a teenager cruising around in smoke-filled cars, an adult jazz fan peering through thick blue haze to groove on Mose, McCoy or Monk, I'd have done darn-near anything to make people stop smoking.

Which is why I think I understand where Alderman Burke is coming from.

Last week, he announced that he would introduce an ordinance in the Windy City, requiring businesses that sell cigarettes to post graphic photos of diseased lungs, hearts and mouths near check-out counters or cash registers.

Said Burke: "The public has become jaded by written warnings alone and needs to be further informed about the health risks associated with the use of tobacco products. The use of photographs may be the most powerful tool at our disposal to get the message across."

Now I will grant the alderman that much of the public has indeed become jaded by written warnings about cigarettes. All it takes is a trip to the movies to see that much of the public is way past jaded. Cigarette smoking is in the throes of a reverse chic revival.

After a fairly smoke-free 10 or 15 years, heroes and heroines, not just bad-guy losers, again smoke on screen. And they act as though they really, really enjoy it.

It is not surprising that young people -- that segment of the population most susceptible to media images -- are also smoking in higher numbers than we've seen in years.

While the smoking population of the United States has been stuck at about 25 percent for the last decade, almost one-third of teens took up smoking in the '90s. This is about 3,000 new young victims every day.

I will wager that almost none of these kids is smoking because she or he needs to be further informed about the health risks associated with the use of tobacco products.

One 14-year-old I know, who started sneaking cigarettes with her adolescent pals about a year ago, used to come home from grade school and harangue her cigarette-addicted mother with statistics on lung cancer, heart disease and the negative health effects of secondhand smoke.