December 12, 1991

This is where the voters of Monmouth County decided to save the earth. After months of watching mothers in gas masks and riot gear predict apocalypse for their tranquil community, residents here last month rejected an incinerator that had been planned -- and approved -- for nearly a decade. It was the first referendum of its kind in the state, and it will soon leave this rapidly growing county with nowhere to put its garbage.

A ubiquitous advertising campaign that presents an anthropomorphic camel as a "smooth character" has once again come in for rough treatment. But the latest attacks are being shrugged off by a company thrilled over the campaign's continuing success in replenishing the ranks of customers for a product that loses hundreds of thousands of consumers a year. The campaign, for the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's Camel cigarettes, invites consumers to identify with Joe Camel, a cartoon beast with an oversized nose. He has a penchant for dressing up in stereotypical masculine gear like hard hats, T-shirts, skin-diving wet suits and tuxedos -- all meant to appeal to the male smokers who predominate among Camel customers.

IT takes stamina. It takes commitment. It takes a lot of antihistamines. Such was life one recent Sunday morning at a festive "wall raising" outside Tucson, when 16 men and women helped Dan Dorsey build his 475-square-foot dream house insulated with straw bales.

After the deadlocks, squabbles and veto threats that frequently marred their negotiations, European Community leaders returned home today confident that their two-day summit meeting here would be remembered as a turning-point in the region's decades-old integration process. At first sight, it might seem more out of political necessity than outright conviction that all 12 leaders cheerfully asserted early today that they had achieved their main objectives, not least because France and Germany were aiming to speed regional unity while Britain was intent on slowing it.

The Administration is confident there is no threat to American security from the Soviet upheaval, but fears that the system of nuclear arms control may be breaking down. Page A13.