ASH Daily News for 07/11/2001

ASH, 102 Clifton Street, London EC2A 4HW Tel: 020 7739 5902 Fax: 020 7613 0531

ASH Daily News

7 November 2001


Headlines

Vector launches ‘safer’ cigarette
Smoking Bishops

Full Text

Vector launches ‘safer’ cigarette

Vector Tobacco Ltd is about to become one the first cigarette maker in the US to market a potentially less hazardous smoke, according to the Wall Street Journal Europe.

The cigarette company is touting its new product in a two page advertising spread in a magazine with the slogan “Reduced carcinogens. Premium taste.” The add says that the new cigarette – branded as Omni – “significantly” cut levels of chemicals that are the major causes of lung cancer in smokers.

However, the company’s strategy to market the cigarette is attracting flak from all sides – with antismoking activists, public health experts and larger rivals in the cigarette business claiming that the ads were misleading.

Mathew Meyers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said: “Everything is designed to imply that this cigarette is safer, with Vector having no proof whatsoever that this is the case.”

The tobacco in the Omni cigarette is treated with a combination of chemicals, including palladium, which is commonly found in the catalytic converters of cars. Vector says such treatment of tobacco, couple with a carbon filter tastes just as good as other leading brands but reduces cancer causing compounds. But it does admit that there is no scientific proof that these reductions will make the cigarettes any less dangerous than the average Marlboro or Camel. It has yet to complete any human or animal tests of the effects of smoking the new cigarettes.

Bennett S. LeBow, Vectors chief executive, in an open letter to the media wrote: “there is no such thing as a safe cigarette, and we do not encourage anyone to smoke.” But he adds: “We strongly believe that if you smoke, Omni is the best alternative.”

The idea of a less hazardous cigarette is controversial. 400,000 people die from smoking related causes in the US and proponents of safer cigarettes say that it could reduce harm. But there is also widespread concern among antismoking and public health groups that the notion of a ‘safer’ cigarette undermines the will of smokers to give up and possibly entice non-smokers to light up.

Source: Wall Street Journal Europe, 6 November 2001


Smoking Bishops

Giles Coren, wrote for the Times:

Britain’s only smoking bishop has landed a promotion from the Pope. The Rt Rev Peter Smith, currently Bishop of East Anglia, is to become Archbishop of Cardiff on December 4, the Pontiff having decided that his merits as a cleric outweigh the risk he poses as a fire hazard.

While his Grace sends up plumes of celebratory fag smoke fit to announce a change of incumbent at the Vatican, not everyone is over the moon.

“It is odd that a servant of God is a slave to nicotine,” says a spokesman for Action on Smoking and Health. “He should set an example of to other Catholics by giving up next No Smoking Day.”

The Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco takes a different line. “This is a good thing because it represents a broad range of society,” says a spokesman. “Maybe he has a rough bunch of parishioners and has to smoke in order to cope with them. The bishop has great responsibility and the added stress from God probably leads him to seek out a moment of peace through his cigarettes.”

Such peace may come at a price however. The ASH fellow tells me: “There is an article in the Times on 17 September 1999, about the Pope claiming that if you don’t smoke you have a better chance of going to Heaven.”

Source: The Times, 7 November 2001



Visit http://TobaccoPedia.org !