Low-nitrosamine cigarettes go on sale

■ Star's Advance, which rette smoke. Advance cigarettes will also Star Scientific is the first tobacco com­ Dallas-Fort Worth. St.ax Scientific is t.aking contain reduced levels of such other toxins pany to sell low-nitrosamine cigarettes and a much different approach in marketing has lower levels of some as hydrogen cyanide, and their packaging the latest to market cigarettes that the Advance compared to RJR's marketing of will include detailed health warnings tak­ public might perceive as a safer smoking Eclipse. ' toxins, being test~marketed ing up the entire back of the cigarette alternative. Advance's two test markets are The c2mpany is making no health By Adrian Zawada packs. Richntond and Lexington, Ky. claims, admitting on its Advance cigarette JOURNAL REPORTER ''We have an obligation to make Advance R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has invested packs that "there is not enough evidence St.ax Scientific Inc. began selling low­ available to adult tobacco consumers along more than $1 billion fu developing its available to know if Star's methods will nitrosamine cigarettes in selected Ken­ with infonnation about the comparable smokeless cigarette, Eclipse, and its failed actually lower your health risks." tucky and Virginia test markets yesterday toxic constituents of smoke," said Paul predecessor, Premier. RJR announced two weeks ago that com.; to attract smokers who want a cigarette Perito, the company's president and chair­ RJR's Eclipse heats tobacco instead of pany scientists found no reduction in the with less potential to cause cancer. man. "Star hopes that the start of its limit­ burning it, and the company says it might toxicity of low-nitrosamine tobacco when The cigarettes, called Advance, have 73 ed test market of Advance will serve as an present smokers with less risk of lung can­ exposing the smoke to animals and DNA percent less tobacco-specific ri.itrosamines incentive to the traditional tobacco indus­ cer, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. cells. (TSNAs), which are acknowledged by pub­ try to consider producing and appropriate­ The nation's No. 2 tobacco company is Tobacco-control advocates said that RJR lic-health advoc11;tes as among the most ly labeling potentially less-toxic cigarette selling Eclipse by the carton over the Inter­ I potent of 40 known carcinogens in ciga- products in a similar fashion." net and in four test markets, including See TOBACCO, Page D7 "I applaud them for the warnings they put by other companies," Perito said. "We would on their packs, but I am concerned about the love to see Brown & Williamson ultimately TOBACCO statements about nitrosamines because this "I appl,aud themfor the license and take over the product. They have Continued From Page Dl is difficult information for consumers to un­ superior ability to. penetrate the market." derstand," Slade said. "It may falsely raise warnings they put on their Reduced-risk cigarettes are like the frozen made the announcement out of concern for expectations for some consumers." packs, but I am c0nCerned dinners of the 1950s, said David Adelman, a profit, not public health, with the goal of Although Star Scientific and RJR said they tobacco-stocks analyst at Morgan Stanley lowering public interest in low-nitrosamine have found no reduction in health risks, sci­ about the statements about Dean Witter in New York. products in order to retain its competitive entists as Brown & Williamson Corp. said nitrosamines because this is "The 1950s frozen dinners were horrible, advantage in the small market for less-risky that the low-nitrosamine tobacco performed they were putrid," Adelman said. "But today, cigarettes. better in a DNA-mutation test. difficuU information for frozen dinners are accepted as high-quality, Star Scientific will also avoid the standard Brown & Williamson is manufacturing Ad­ consumers to understand. It convenient, and people use them all the time. cigarette-advertising practices for Advance, vance cigarettes for Star Scientific, and has That's the context to think of this product." although it will use a slogan, ''Know what you bought 12.5 million pounds of Star's low­ may falsely raise It will be a few decades before they are smoke."' nitrosamine tobacco. expectations for some ever a significant part of the cigarette market The Eclipse advertising campaign included Perito said that Brown & Williamson is and profitable, he said. standard marketing tools, including maga­ making the cigarettes and the packaging be­ consumers.'' cause it has better machinery. Low-nitrosamine tobacco is no break­ zine ads. through in making a safer cigarette, an im­ Considering that Star Scientific can't say In its public relations, Star Scientific is John Slade trying to distinguish itself from the other possible feat in itself, said Alan Blum, who whether Advance cigarettes reduce smoking an expert in reduced-risk tobacco products holds the Gerald Leon Wallace chair in family risks, "you're comparing apples and or­ cigarette companies, which have been found anges" with regard to its potential competi­ liable in court cases for fraud, misrepresenta­ medicine at the University of Alabama. tiveness with RJR's Eclipse, said Seth tion and making a dangerous and defective Cigarette companies have been marketing lion pounds of low-nitrosamine burley tobac­ ,ess-risky cigarettes to the public ever since Moskowitz, an RJR spokesman. "Eclipse is product. The company, from Chester, Va., co this year as well. the only cigarette available that has scientific describes itself as a "technology-oriented to­ they introduced filtered cigarettes in 1931, Star Scientific's low-nitrosamine tobacco he said. Just as filtered cigarettes and light substantiation to make the claim that it may bacco company with a health-related mis­ has no difference in color, taste or nicotine present less risk," Moskowitz said, adding sion.", Slade said it is in fact a different cigarettes did nothing to make smoking less that Advance and Eclipse aren't even in the tobacco company because it prints large content from tobacco that hasn't undergone dangerous, neitherwill low-nitrosamine ciga­ same category of cigarettes. warnings on cigarette packs. its patented StarCure process. rettes, Blum said. Cigarette companies shouldn't market the Advance cigarette packs will have such The tobacco also contains 30 percent less "Reducing nitrosamines doesn't have any­ fact that they are using low-nitrosamine to­ warning labels as "smoking can take years , hydrogen cyanide than a typical light ciga­ thing to do with the other dangers of smok­ bacco, said John Slade, an expert on re­ off your life. It's much safer for you to quit rette and 15 percent less benzene. It has 47 ing," Blum said. "No one knows whether duced-risk tobacco products and a professor than to switch or smoke." percent more formaldehyde and equal they contribute to 20 percent of a victim's at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of They will also contain a charcoal/acetate amounts of nicotine as a light cigarette. cancer or zero percent. It won't save lives." New Jersey. Slade and other public-health filter. Ultimately, Star Scientific's goal is to sell Public-health authorities insisted yester­ advocates fear that some smokers will inev­ The company makes 21 million pounds of off its Advance cigarette brand after five day that the lack of scientific evidence fur­ itably perceive low-nitrosamine cigarettes as flue-cured, low-nitrosamine tobacco through years and focus on the tobacco technology ther demonstrates the need for Food and safer, even if they aren't, which may prevent its patented StarCure method in .its Peter­ processing business, Perito said. Drug Administration jurisdiction over tobac­ smokers from quitting. burg, Va., plant, and has produced 1.5 mil- "We assume that Advance will be licensed co products.