Follow-Up: Land Mines, Tobacco

December 4, 1997

Land Mine landslide - It's welcome news that some 110 nations will sign the treaty banning land mines. Forty ratifications are needed to activate the treaty. But big powers China, US, Russia, India, and Pakistan, and smaller Mideast states don't plan to sign. We hope peer pressure will force holdouts to change. It's unacceptable that thousands of people continue to be killed or maimed long after wars are over - and vast areas of farmland remain unusable.

Smoky roadracing - After a huge campaign donation to Britain's Labour Party, Formula One car racing was to be exempted from Europe's ban on tobacco sponsorship of sports. Now EU officials propose Formula One be required to shrink tobacco sloganeering each year. Fine. But only if the shrinkage is steep and fast.