Pubdate: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 11:39:53 EDT Source: The Herald,Everett, WA Contact: TOBACCO ADVERTISING Targeting kids worldwide I am glad for the current movement to restrict tobacco smoking and applaud the recent revelations concerning the coverup by the major companies of the health hazards they have long known about. However, the general public is not aware that the tobacco com panies are compensating for their losses in this country by pushing vigorously their advertising in other coun tries. Their targets are the youth, especially Asia. Early last year the National Catholic Reporter pub lished an article exposing this immoral practice. I quote: "It is widely known that cigarettes lead to the deaths of some 5000,000 people in the United States each year. According to estimates, tobacco use, now rising quickly, kills another 2.5 million people worldwide each year... With pressure gradually growing to curtail cigarette smoking in the United States, the tobacco companies, including the Philip Morris Co., The British American Tobacco Co. with the help of U.S. govern ment officials have been developing new markets for tobacco export. They are targeting Asia in particular." The article quoted above or one like it was con densed in the Readers' Digest, I believe, but I have not been able to locate it. Americans should be ashamed that we are the drug dealers profiting from the promotion of this deathdealing habit. How can we complain about those who import cocaine and marijuana when we are pushing the export of tobacco? JOHN H. SCHLOSSER Stanwood