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Excerpts from: 'Non-burning' cigarette no healthier, study says - Finds high levels of some toxins

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff  [10/04/00]

      new ''non-burning'' cigarette that R.J. Reynolds says has an 80 percent lower level of
      cancer-causing chemicals than typical ultralight brands is actually just as carcinogenic or
 more, according to a study by the state Department of Public Health.

 The tobacco maker says the Eclipse cigarette is ''the next best choice'' to quitting, and is 64 to 87
 percent less carcinogenic than ultralights.

 But state lab tests show that when compared to RJR's own low-tar Now King Size Hard Pack
 ultralights, Eclipse has 734 percent more acetaldehyde and 475 percent more acrolein, two
 cancer-causing agents.

 ''This is truly astonishing,'' said the DPH commissioner, Dr. Howard Koh. ''There is no such thing
 as a safe cigarette. It is an oxymoron. These health claims by RJR are so blatantly false.''

  Koh said yesterday he is asking state attorneys general to investigate whether RJR is violating the
 1998 agreement that settled a multistate lawsuit against the tobacco industry and forbids cigarette
 makers from misrepresenting the health consequences of their product.

 Koh, along with three national tobacco control groups, is also asking the Federal Trade
 Commission and the Federal Drug Administration to investigate the advertising claims by RJR.

 ''We are very concerned that former smokers will come back and smoke Eclipse, thinking it is safer
 than any cigarette in the market, and that current smokers using light cigarettes will switch to Eclipse
 and not quit,'' said Dr. Gregory Connolly, director of the DPH's Tobacco Control Program.

  Koh says his agency's lab tests provide solid evidence that Eclipse is as dangerous as or more
 dangerous than the two other ultra-low tar brands, Now King Size and Brown & Williamson's
 Carlton King Size Soft Pack, that his agency used as comparison. Two of the most potent
 carcinogens, Benzo(a)pyrine, or BaP, and NNK, were found at roughly equal levels in the Carlton
 and Eclipse cigarettes, but were far lower in Now King Size.