Making Safe Cigarette Poses Problems
Alternatives may cause a different set of maladies
By ROBERT S. BOYD
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON Now that the tobacco industry has been forced to admit that
smoking can kill, a new push for less deadly brands is likely. But is
there such a thing as a "safe" cigarette? Or is that a blatant
contradiction in terms?

You can't ever make tobacco smoke totally harmless, but you can make it
less harmful," said Dr. John, a leading authority on smoking and health
at St. Peter's Medical Center in New Brunswick, N.J.

"There are technologies that will reduce the poisons in smoke." Tobacco
companies may soon be using them. If last month's deal between cigarette
manufacturers and antismoking forces holds up, the Food and Drug
Administration would have the power to require companies to offer "less
hazardous tobacco products."

It could also order the gradual phaseout of nicotine, the chemical that
makes it so hard for smokers to quit. And if the industry fails to come
up with a less dangerous alternative to today's brands, the government
could step in to do the job itself or license a third party to do so,

Health experts divide the safercigarette problem into two parts:

(1)Eliminating nicotine, which is addictive but does relatively little
direct harm itself, except to fetuses. (2) Reducing the carbon monoxide,
tars and other carcinogens contained in tobacco smoke, which cause
cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other ailments.

"Nicotine hooks people; the other ingredients kill," said Dr. Mohammad
Akhter, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

"Yes, you can make a safer cigarette," said Donald Shopland, head of the
smoking and tobacco control program at the National Cancer Institute in
Bethesda, Md.

"The real question is: Will the consumer accept it?"

"I might try it," said Ruth Watson, 33, a packaday Salem smoker who
works in a Washington tobacco shop.

"I've been smoking since I was 16, and I need to stop. I haven't tried
to quit, but sometimes I worry about cancer."

Until now, research for safer cigarettes has been limited, with
companies concentrating their dollars in other areas.

Previous attempts to peddle innocuous cigarettes have not been a wild
success. One customer said R.J. Reynolds' illfated "smokeless" Premier
brand, which lasted only five months in smelled "as if you'd just opened
a grave on a warm day."

Now Reynolds is testmarketing the Eclipse, a tube containing water,
glycerine and a small amount of tobacco.

When a charcoal tip is lighted, an Eclipse heats but doesn't burn

its contents, producing no messy ashes or unpleasant stench, and leaving
very few toxic tars in the lungs.

The lack of burning is important, said John Banzhaf, an antismoking
activist, because "anytime you burn something even lettuce you get
bad stuff."

The American Lung Association, however, objects that the Eclipse
produces twice as much carbon monoxide, a dangerous gas, as a normal
cigarette.

Furthermore, glycerine, when heated, turns into acrolein, a human
carcinogen, the association said.

It is also worried that the thought of a safe cigarette might lure
teenagers who otherwise would not start smoking to pick up the habit.

We make no safety claims for Eclipse," acknowledged Nat Walker an R.J.
Reynolds spokesman. The tobacco industry has been offering various forms
of lowtar or "lownicotine" cigarettes for more than 60 years, but the
death toll continued to rise.

The first commercial flitter tip, a wad of cotton soaked in caustic
soda, appeared in the 1931 Parliament.

The Viceroy came along in 1936 with a cellulose filter that it claimed
removed half the particles in smoke.

Ads for the 1952 Kent proclaimed it "the greatest health protection in
cigarette history, according to 'Ashes to Ashes a 1996 history of the
tobacco industry by Richard KIuger.

By and large, these "milder" models didn't work. People simply smoked
more to get the same amount of nicotine, said Dr. Neal Benowitz, an
expert on addiction at UCSan Francisco.

The more they puffed, the more toxic substances and carbon monoxide they
took in.

"Lowtar and filter cigarettes never delivered on their promises," said
Slade, from St. Peter's.

"They actually sustained and increased the market. People kept on
smoking or were recruited to smoking with promises of safety."

Nevertheless, Benowitz says reducing the amount of nicotine in a
cigarette is worthwhile.

"People will find it easier to quit as nicotine levels drop,"'he said in
an interview. "They will have to smoke harder. It's going to be harsh.
It's not going to be pleasant to puff."

In addition, experts suggest various ways to reduce or eliminate at
least some of the 4,000 chemical compounds about 60 of them
carcinogenic found in tobacco products.

For example, Slade noted that the Swedish tobacco monopoly has developed
a manufacturing technique that lowers the level of nitrosamines, a
cancercausing chemical, in snuff, a product that is gaining popularity
with both Swedish and American teenagers.

"American manufacturers are not using this process, which could probably
also be used in cigarettes," he said. "Some ingredients, like burley
(tobacco) stems, are especially high in nitrosamines, "That could be
reduced."

Slade also said devices such as nicotine gum, patches, sprays or
inhalers, which deliver doses of pure nicotine without harmful
byproducts, can be helpful.

"That's as close as we'll come to making tobacco perfectly safe," he
said.

"There is no way to make smoke from burning cigarette poisonfree. My
goal is to reduce illness and death from tobacco to lowest extent
possible."