IF YOU CAN'T QUIT, TRY A SAFER CIGARETTE

TO SLASH the death toll from tobacco, governments should make cigarettes
safer rather than attempt to eradicate smoking in one step, a group of
experts concluded this week. The committee, assembled by the Royal College
of Physicians, said new regulation is needed to ensure cigarettes satisfy
addicts' nicotine cravings without greatly increasing their risk of cancer
or heart disease. "it may be necessary to accept, albeit reluctantly, the
intractability of widespread nicotine addiction in the short to medium
term," their report concludes.

"A government agency should make sure nicotine delivery systems are as safe
as any other drug delivery system," says the committee chairman, John
Britton of Nottingham University. Governments might insist on filters and
tobacco treatment processes that reduce levels of toxins like tar in
cigarette smoke (New Scientist, 8 May 1999, p 18). Clive Bates, director of
Action on Smoking and Health, agrees that this approach would save lives.
"Current nicotine delivery devices are far too dangerous," he says.