Cigarettes and Tobacco News

Nov 9, 2005, WASHINGTON DC -- Amidst rumors that they are developing a cigarette marketed as "safe", British American Tobacco (BAT) has released a statement maintaining while their new product is less harmful to the body, the cigarette does not contain the health benefits that were previously reported.

Last week, the British newspaper Guardian reported that BAT would launch a cigarette that claimed to cut the risk of death from heart attack or cancer by as much as 90 percent. Emily Brand, spokeswoman for the BAT, announced that the figures were unconditionally false. She declared that BAT's new product line would implement unique filtration methods in order to prevent harmful substances from entering the lung cavity.

American tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris is also believed to possibly implement similar filtration techniques.

British American Tobacco is the second-leading producer of tobacco in the world. The company owns the rights to many well-known cigarette brands, including Lucky Strike, Kent, Dunhill and Pall Mall.

Deborah Arnott, member of Action on Smoking and Health, hopes that consumers will not be fooled by the attachment of "safe" or "safer" to cigarette marketing schemes. She contends that light cigarettes are just as harmful to the body due to the fact that the designation often fools the consumer into believing they have reduced their risk of cancer and heart disease.

"By encouraging people to carry on smoking by switching to supposed low tar or safer brands hundreds of thousands more people have died. There is no way of significantly reducing the harm of smoking."

Brand stated that BAT is not yet certain if they will even introduce their safer cigarette to the marketplace, as consumer trials essential toward marketing have not commenced.