SETTLEMENT IS VERY CLOSE [05/22]

A so-called "global settlement" to all smoking-related issues seems to be only a week or so away, and one of the few things which could delay it is a meeting next week in Chicago by antismoking advocates.

Public health groups have decried the secret talks, and how they react Wednesday could signal whether Attorney General Mike Moore has enough grassroots support to win the required congressional approval for any settlement.

According to reliable sources, a small number of self-selected negotiators has agreed to a proposal to cap at $4 billion a year the total legal damages that cigarette makers would have to pay in any future lawsuits. If jury verdicts nationwide totaled more than that, sick smokers would have to wait until the following year to collect.

But even with this major concession on the issue of legal liability, the tobacco industry is demanding more.

They are asking for limits on the ability of the FDA to regulate nicotine so as to assure that cigarettes could continue to be sold for another 25 years.

One possibility floated was declaring that the FDA could not force nicotine to be lowered beyond a minimum level.

Dr. Ron Davis of Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital, one of the doctors, would neither confirm nor deny that the group had been asked about setting nicotine levels.

But he and Dr. John Slade of St. Peter's Medical Center in New Jersey confirmed they are among the talks' advisers.

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