MORE HUFFING ABOUT PUFFING

Should cigarettes be under stricter controls? That long-burning issue heated up on two fronts last week. After years of pushing toward regulating nicotine as an addictive drug -- and meeting resistance from Congress and the tobacco lobby -- the Food and Drug Administration passed the issue to the White House. The agency announced that it was urging relatively mild new regulations aimed at curbing smoking among youngsters. Among them: banning cigarette machines and stiffening penalties for vendors who sell tobacco to minors.

The next day the American Medical Association blasted the cigarette industry for "duping" the U.S. public by deliberately hiding the dangers of smoking. The A.M.A. released a detailed review of 8,000 pages of internal documents from Brown & Williamson, the third largest U.S. tobacco company. The memos and reports, going back 30 years, show that company officials privately called nicotine an addictive drug while publicly insisting it was a flavor enhancer, and that the firm withheld research showing that tobacco can cause cancer.

The documents, which were obtained by University of California at San Francisco researchers largely through anonymous sources, have already been publicized over the past year. But doctors hope repetition will arouse the public to demand action, including bans on all cigarette advertising, tobacco exports and industry contributions to scientists and politicians. Any such action seems unlikely in the current antiregulatory political climate. House Speaker Newt Gingrich's comment on the FDA proposals was that the agency had "lost its mind." President Clinton guardedly endorsed stronger controls on smoking by youths, but stressed that he had not yet seen the new report from the FDA.

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COLOR PHOTO: DAMIEN LOVEGROVE/SPL -- PHOTO RESEARCHERS [Hand holding burning cigarette]