COUNTY OFFICIALS VOTE TO JOIN TOBACCO SUIT.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

Ventura County officials voted Tuesday to sign on to a third lawsuit targeting the tobacco industry, this one aimed at R.J. Reynolds' advertising campaign featuring the cartoon pitchman Joe Camel.

County attorneys, who last year joined two anti-tobacco lawsuits brought by the city of San Francisco, will seek court approval to be listed as a co-plaintiff in a private lawsuit scheduled to come to trial this year. The lawsuit alleges that the North Carolina-based tobacco manufacturer broke state and federal law by appealing to children with its popular Joe Camel advertisements.

Comparing the character to such commercial cartoon mascots as Tony the Tiger, the Trix Rabbit and the Keebler Elves, the lawsuit maintains that the campaign of billboards and print ads was designed to target children and teen-agers.

``It's obvious who they're going after with Joe Camel,'' said Supervisor Judy Mikels. ``How many people my age give a flying fig about Joe Camel and what he espouses? If they were trying to appeal to older consumers, the ad campaign would be very different.''

The supervisors agreed last year to join 13 county and city governments participating in litigation seeking to recoup millions of dollars spent in publicly funded treatment of smoking-related illnesses.

County attorneys said they were convinced to join the private lawsuit because crucial legal issues overlap between the cases.

``The first case that goes to trial is the one that will decide these issues forever,'' said Ventura County litigation supervisor Noel Klebaum. ``If our case is ever going to be presented to the court, it really has to be presented here.''

The Joe Camel campaign, which began in 1988 and was conceived 10 years earlier by a British cartoonist, has become more visible in Ventura County over the past year, said Jean Scott, program administrator for the county tobacco education program. Billboards featuring the character lounging beside pool tables and motorcycles have recently appeared on roadsides in Oxnard, Port Huenemie and Saticoy, Scott said.

``We haven't seen a lot of these billboards before, but now we're seeing quite a lot,'' she said. ``There are none along the 101 Freeway, but go out to some poor and minority neighborhoods and you find them all over the place. They're putting their ads where they think they can catch new fish.''

The lawsuit is more narrowly focused that the other legal actions, which charge that six tobacco companies and two trade associations have engaged in a conspiracy to conceal the addictive nature of cigarettes.

``The picture the complaint draws is one of about 50 years of conspiracy and deception among the tobacco companies for the purpose of enhancing the sales of cigarettes,'' said Klebaum.

To prepare for the case, county health officials are currently adding up the costs of treating uninsured and indigent patients for cancer, heart disease and respiratory prolems caused by smoking. The bill is expected to run into the millions of dollars, said Dr. Gary Feldman, county health officer.

While supporting the lawsuit aimed at Joe Camel, Mikels said she believes it is wrong for the goverment to sue the tobacco industry over the effects of a product it has approved for public use.

``If in fact everything that the medical communtiy is espousing about the dangers and addictiveness of smoking is true, then good public policy would dictate that we either ban cigarettes or control them in the same way we control other dangerous chemical agents,'' she said. ``We shouldn't call tobacco a legal commodity and then run around suing and yelling and screaming about the dangers of it.''