CALIFORNIA: L.A. FIRST COUNTY IN NATION TO SUE INDUSTRY

      Los Angeles County became the first county in the nation to
 sue the tobacco industry when it filed suit in Los Angeles County
 Superior Court Monday and named six companies as defendants.  LOS
 ANGELES TIMES reports that the county is alleging that the six
 companies "controlled and manipulated the amount and ...
 availability of nicotine in their tobacco products for the
 purpose and with the intent of creating and sustaining addiction"
 (Corwin/Rabin, 8/6).  In addition to the cigarette manufacturers,
 the county filed suit against eight others, including industry
 groups, vendors, distributors and a biotechnology firm (Bloom,
 LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS, 8/6).  County Counsel DeWitt Clinton said
 that the case was "hurriedly filed" because the two law firms
 that will represent the county recommended the move based on
 "reliable information" that a delay "could prejudice the county's
 position and substantially affect" the county's "opportunity" for
 financial recovery.
      ZEV SAID:  County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said of the
 county's action:  "Our lawsuit has two objectives.  One is to
 recover the millions of dollars a year that we believe county
 taxpayers have incurred treating people who have been made sick
 by tobacco.  But we don't just want to recover money.  We also
 want to change the nature of the insidious advertising that the
 tobacco companies do.  They target the most vulnerable population
 -- teenagers."  Yaroslavsky, a former two-pack-a-day smoker, said
 that L.A. County's case is "significant" because of its size; it
 is now the third largest plaintiff behind the states of Texas and
 Florida.  "There's a lot at stake here because we're the biggest
 county in the country and we're even bigger than most states.  A
 lot of lives here are affected by smoking and a lot of cost is
 incurred," Yaroslavsky said.  
      I'LL SAY:  Health Services Director Mark Finucane said that
 a 1994 University of California at San Francisco study found that
 smoking-related illnesses cost the county $1.2 billion a year, of
 which the county's public health system must absorb $372 million
 (TIMES, 8/6).