ASH and Imperial Cancer Research Fund release further evidence [1] from confidentialtobacco industry documents showing that the tobacco companies have deliberately made andmarketed low tar cigarettes knowing that they would fool smokers into a false sense ofsecurity. Low tar cigarettes give low tar readings when measured on machines, butaccording to the Ministry of Health in British Columbia: Many smokers think that'light' cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes, and that by smoking 'light'cigarettes they will inhale fewer cancer-causing chemicals, or less nicotine. B.C.'s newsmoking tests have shown how wrong this belief can be. The reports filed by the tobaccocompanies show that light cigarettes are likely to deliver as many (or more) poisons andtoxins to smokers as regular cigarettes.

The release of the substantially updated 1999 edition of this report is timed tocoincide with the polling research undertaken by the Health Education Authority showingthat many smokers wrongly expect low-tar cigarettes to be less harmful [2]. The reportcontains over 20 revealing and damning extracts from tobacco industry documents.

Dr. Martin Jarvis of Imperial Cancer Research Fund said: "We know that low-tarcigarettes offer no meaningful benefits to smokers and may even be more harmful. Thebiggest threat to the tobacco companies is that people will quit and leave the market forgood -- these cigarettes are there to persuade smokers there is a healthy way to remain asloyal customers."

Clive Bates, Director of ASH said: "This is not just an accidentalmisunderstanding -- so-called low tar cigarettes are the result of a scandalous marketingand product design strategy devised by tobacco companies in which smokers have been fooledand regulators side-stepped. It's only because they are exempted from all normal consumerprotection legislation that the tobacco industry can get away with it."

ASH and Imperial Cancer Research Fund have called on the European Union to ban low-tarbranding such as, 'Light', 'Mild', 'Ultra'; etc. because this branding is an implied, butunjustified, health claim. "Marlboro Lights and Silk Cut Ultra are selling a falsepromise, and we want them taken off the market" said Bates.

[1] Dr. Martin Jarvis, and Clive Bates. Low Tar: Why low-tar cigarettes don’t workand how the tobacco industry has fooled the smoking public. 1999 Edition. 18^thMarch 1999.