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  • 6/21/2025

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00:00It's a ritual practiced almost everywhere.
00:22Every aspect designed to engage and satisfy the senses.
00:38Each day 15 billion cigarettes are consumed around the world, more than two for every human
00:44being alive.
00:53Despite all appearances, the tobacco in this cigarette is not burning.
00:59What looks like smoke is for the most part vapor from water and glycerin, laced with flavored
01:06nicotine, released by the heat from a bit of burning charcoal in the tip.
01:12It's one of a new group of products designed to produce fewer toxins.
01:24Although these cigarettes come with the hope of a safer smoke, they have unleashed a storm
01:29of controversy.
01:30The tobacco industry will do anything that it can to keep current smokers smoking, and
01:37the flavor of the day seems to be the so-called safer cigarette.
01:41We don't know if it's possible to make a safer cigarette.
01:45Cigarettes are always going to be there.
01:46They're not going away.
01:47You can't ban them.
01:49This cigarette may be one part of the solution.
01:53With cigarette companies under fire, and millions of lives at risk, the stakes are high as the
02:00tobacco industry pursues the elusive goal of a safer cigarette.
02:04Come up to cool.
02:05Cigarettes tobacco taste.
02:06Tomorrow I'll go.
02:11Major funding for NOVA is provided by the Park Foundation, dedicated to education and quality television.
02:18Scientific achievement is fueled by the simple design and quality television.
02:39scientific achievement is fueled by the simple desire to make things clear.
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02:55This program is funded in part by the Northwestern Mutual Foundation.
03:01Some people already know Northwestern Mutual can help plan for your children's education.
03:06Are you there yet?
03:08Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.
03:13Additional funding for this program was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and by the
03:22Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.
03:43Tobacco has been part of the American scene since long before Columbus reached these shores.
04:03It became one of the most profitable of all agricultural products.
04:19Tobacco put a struggling colony on the map and helped finance the revolution.
04:32Tobacco pays growers more than 20 times an acre what they would earn from grain.
04:53Not long after the Civil War, an unemployed soldier inspired by the sound of a Gregorian chant
04:59created a new style of auctioning tobacco that continues to this day.
05:06A successful auctioneer can sell more than a hundred bales in an hour.
05:14There's just enough time for a look and a feel before buyers bid with a gesture.
05:20Today, U.S. tobacco sales are down, especially since the tobacco wars of the 1990s.
05:39Those were the years when investigators made public the secret inner workings of the cigarette industry.
05:45For decades, the companies didn't tell the truth.
05:52They denied the health hazards associated with the product.
05:55They denied that the nicotine in cigarettes was addictive.
05:58Cigarette makers were forced to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in settlements.
06:04Then, to the surprise of many, they staged a dramatic turnaround.
06:11Part of the solution was replacing American tobacco with cheaper product from abroad.
06:17This, along with hefty price hikes, paid off the liabilities.
06:23Tobacco company profits are now at an all-time high.
06:29Industry critics are quick to point out the price of this success.
06:36The statistics are frightening.
06:40The annual death toll is 420,000 Americans who die prematurely every year because of tobacco-related diseases.
06:48Or to put it even more graphically, imagine three fully loaded 747s that crash and burn every single day with no survivors.
06:58Although smoking rates in the U.S. have been gradually declining for years, one in four adults still smokes.
07:08And throughout the developing world, cigarettes are a growth industry.
07:13Of all the people alive in this world today, we expect half a billion will be killed by cigarette smoking.
07:22Two-thirds in poor countries.
07:26And all those two-thirds, half are children under the age of 18.
07:30For the past 40 years, anti-smoking forces have lobbied without success for government control of what they say is the most dangerous and least regulated consumer product on the market.
07:45Lobbyists from companies were always there when the laws were being written.
07:49And they said, you understand, of course, we have to be out of this one, right?
07:53We have to be out of this one.
07:55And they got bitten out.
07:58Now there's a new factor to consider.
08:01Across the industry, manufacturers large and small are preparing a new generation of what they call reduced-risk products.
08:12In 1990, Star Tobacco, a small manufacturer of discount cigarettes, was purchased by two entrepreneurs with no background in the cigarette business.
08:29I called my partner up and I said, Frank, there's so much money changing hands in the tobacco business and they're in so much trouble.
08:38There must be an opportunity here with this.
08:42The facility was aging and there was no lab.
08:46But the new owners were looking for a competitive edge.
08:49They decided to try to create a safer cigarette.
08:54Williams had no formal training in science.
08:57Undeterred, he started his own study of cigarette toxins.
09:03Anyone who wants to make a safer cigarette must get familiar with the complex brew of toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke.
09:17Surprisingly, nicotine is not a major one.
09:22It is, however, addictive.
09:26Passed from the lungs to the bloodstream, nicotine enters the brain, where it interferes with the operation of the central nervous system.
09:37Every second, countless electrical impulses that originate in the brain travel along nerve pathways to regulate the body's functioning.
09:47Chemicals relay these messages from one nerve cell to another.
09:53Launched by an electrical charge, the neurotransmitter acetylcholine jumps the gap between nerve cells and attaches to special receptor sites.
10:05This produces a new electrical charge and the message is relayed along the chain.
10:13When nicotine reaches the brain, it mimics and overwhelms acetylcholine.
10:25Nicotine overstimulates the brain in a number of different areas.
10:32It can relax some muscles and activate other muscle systems.
10:38It releases hormones like adrenaline and noradrenaline that can affect the way you feel.
10:44It can arouse you if you're sleepy.
10:47If you're nervous and anxious, the right amount of nicotine can help make you feel a little bit better and a little bit more relaxed.
10:55Eventually, the brain adapts to the elevated level of activity.
11:01Any shortage of nicotine creates the discomfort and craving of addiction.
11:07Once you're addicted to the nicotine and you go on to smoke for decades and put all those other poisonous compounds into your body,
11:15that's what shortens your life, not the nicotine, but the repeated exposure to the other harmful compounds in smoke.
11:32Johnny Williams found out that tobacco in the field has few toxins.
11:37But by the time of sale, it contains a deadly group of carcinogens called tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs.
11:52Something was happening to the tobacco while it was drying, during the week-long curing process that follows harvest.
12:02By the 1980s, most Virginia tobacco was cured by sealing it in a prefabricated barn,
12:08where it was heated with the exhaust from a propane gas fire.
12:18Some scientists believe that this oxygen-starved or anaerobic atmosphere causes bacteria in the tobacco to seek oxygen from other sources.
12:27Tobacco is rich in nitrate compounds, which carry three oxygen atoms.
12:37When the bacteria takes one, it creates a new highly reactive nitrite compound that is drawn to tobacco's nicotine molecule.
12:45The fruit of this marriage? Deadly nitrosamines, which can damage human DNA.
13:02Williams thought he might prevent the nitrosamines from forming if he could somehow impede the bacteria in the tobacco.
13:08And I thought, I'll put it in the microwave and see what happens if I try to cure this tobacco in the microwave.
13:18At the end of two minutes, something very serious happened.
13:22So I pulled the tobacco out, and I had cured tobacco in two minutes.
13:28Tests carried out at the University of Kentucky found the microwave-cured tobacco to be significantly lower in nitrosamines than tobacco cured in a barn.
13:43Eager to produce a commercial batch, Williams needed a way to expand production.
13:48Well, I had someone in my office go over to Walmart and purchase a hundred of these kitchen microwaves.
14:03Then, looking to the future, he commissioned a custom-built oven that filled a room.
14:08After curing in the giant microwave began, he received devastating news.
14:21The machine was in flames.
14:24And I came in his room, and I sat down.
14:28And I said to myself, now what are the other things that I can do?
14:32He had already tested a variety of other curing techniques,
14:39and found the forced hot air of a convection oven to be slow but effective.
14:45Now, he needed a larger test.
14:53So, the only thing I could come up with, with convection air,
14:57was a tumble dryer.
14:59Well, I came back the next morning, took the tobacco out,
15:05overnighted it to the University of Kentucky.
15:09And not only were the nitrosamines low,
15:13but the tobacco quality was improved, the texture.
15:20If the burner won't, it will actually keep the temperature at 70 degrees.
15:24Williams conceived a grand plan to change the way Virginia tobacco was cured.
15:29He built high-tech curing barns that worked much like giant convection ovens,
15:34forcing clean, heated air through the tobacco.
15:40He gave the barns to farmers who agreed to sell him their cured tobacco.
15:43The first star-cure harvest was ready in 1998.
15:47But there were no takers.
15:51You know, I thought the entire industry would seize upon this.
15:53I'm hopeful, like any entrepreneur would be, is,
15:54I figured out how to do this.
15:55It works.
15:56This fixes a problem for you.
15:57Only no one was there.
15:58And I didn't understand it.
16:04One company did come forward.
16:05And I didn't understand it.
16:07I'm right, I'm right, I'm right.
16:08One company did come forward.
16:11this I'm hopeful like any entrepreneur would be is I figured out how to do this
16:17it works this fixes a problem for you only no one was there and I didn't
16:23understand it one company did come forward in April of 1999 Brown and
16:35Williamson makers of Lucky Strikes and Cools offered to buy 1.2 million pounds
16:40of stars low nitrosamine tobacco but the good news was only good for a day as soon
16:49as Brown and Williamson announced within 24 hours another company made a public
16:54statement that they had just discovered how to do this in the laboratory the
17:00giant RJ Reynolds tobacco company said that nitrosamines were not the result of
17:04an anaerobic environment but rather were formed from compounds in the propane gas
17:09exhaust used to heat the barns either or both explanations could be correct and
17:19both called for similar solutions Reynolds less costly approach was to retrofit
17:27existing gas-fired barns with clean-burning heat exchangers soon
17:35RJR was joined by Philip Morris the industry leader I think Reynolds did make it go
17:43very quickly across the entire industry as opposed to star which I think was
17:48looking for a competitive advantage we didn't see a competitive advantage if we
17:55thought it was the right thing to do we decided to implement it and we wanted in
17:59fact it implemented across the whole industry
18:01whether the star patent was violated is yet to be legally determined
18:09late in 2000 star now star scientific introduced its own cigarette called
18:19advance the first to be made with low nitrosamine Virginia tobacco the company
18:27also had a new chief operating officer Paul Pareto a Harvard trained lawyer and
18:32Washington insider neither we nor anybody else can manufacture a safe cigarette we do believe that we
18:41can manufacture a cigarette that does deliver less toxins and we are hopeful that this will
18:47someday be shown through scientific research it will take years because the onset of cancer takes years
18:55start tobacco it's an intriguing company I think of anything it's it's it's it's a you know it's a needle in the side of the big guys making them do things they wouldn't normally do unless you had star out there and what it does it provides a healthy dose of competition for safer products whether or not they're really safer I think is the big sixty four thousand dollar question
19:21keep in mind we have 42 other carcinogens in cigarette smoke
19:31the reason cigarettes have so many toxins is that they burn
19:38any organic material like tobacco is chemically complex
19:42combustion increases the complexity enormously
19:47with heat peaking at 1,000 degrees centigrade the 300 or so compounds that make up tobacco explode into over 5,000
19:57tobacco behind the burning cone heats up and releases gases including carbon monoxide one of the deadliest components of automobile exhaust
20:10they're going on the cigarette
20:14drawing on the cigarette pulls the gases and microscopic particles of incomplete combustion called tar into the mouth and lungs
20:20over time they wreak havoc on the delicate lungs and cardiovascular systems
20:29first carbon monoxide passes through the lungs into the blood
20:35where it binds so vigorously with hemoglobin that it displaces the oxygen these cells normally carry to nurture tissue throughout the body
20:43the heart is forced to work harder which can damage the circulatory system
20:52the gases also devastate the tiny hair like filaments along the airway called cilia
21:01normally they move contaminants out of the lungs without them the tar remains causing lung cells to multiply and tissue to thicken
21:11gradually the lungs lose elasticity and chronic bronchitis and emphysema can develop
21:20and finally there's cancer
21:31carcinogens like nitrosamines interact with DNA creating mutant genes that cause the uncontrolled cell growth that is the hallmark of cancer
21:41you won't find it on the death certificate
21:48but one vital factor in Jim's death was this
21:52the relationship between smoking and health did not become clear until the early 1950s
22:00smoking had been suspect for years
22:04but new studies revealed a statistical correlation between smoking and lung cancer
22:11then it was found that mice painted with cigarette tar developed tumors
22:22the tobacco industry was caught off guard
22:26the stock dropped immediately people started quitting immediately
22:31within the first week after that paper the salesmen were panicked
22:36so the companies got their heads together and had a secret meeting in New York to decide what do we do?
22:43how do we handle this?
22:45we can't just sit and watch the business slide from under us
22:54a massive public relations campaign was launched to raise questions about the validity of the scientific studies
23:00and to promote positive notions about smoking
23:05at the same time they knew there was a problem
23:09and so they were going to work on that secretly
23:12if there was something in a cigarette that caused cancer they wanted to get it out
23:17this is the P. Laurelard plant in Greensboro, North Carolina
23:20the world's most modern cigarette factory
23:23while scientists at the major tobacco companies struggled to identify and remove carcinogens
23:30the small and struggling Laurelard tobacco company found a quick and marketable approach to the problem
23:40in 1952, Laurelard launched Kent's
23:43featuring a rarity in those days, a filter tip
23:46by capturing tar particles before they reached the lungs
23:50the filter would seem to create a safer smoke
23:53if you're that one out of every three smokers who is affected by nicotine and tars
23:59then Kent's Micronite filter is the one answer for you
24:03in fact, it's the greatest health protection you can get in a cigarette
24:08I want you to watch this
24:10Fibers of a special filter material were said to be so thin
24:16they could trap tar particles as small as one micron
24:19one two thousandth of an inch
24:23Look, there it is
24:25an ugly stain from the hot, harsh irritants that come right through this other filter
24:30but through Kent's Micronite filter, there's hardly a trace
24:35Unfortunately, the new filter had a unique problem of its own
24:39The filtering agent in Kent was chrysidylite asbestos
24:46which was known at the time to be a cause of cancer
24:50In 1954, the Laurelard company commissioned several studies
24:56to see if asbestos fibers ended up in the cigarette smoke
25:01each of the labs that reported back to the company
25:04that indeed there was asbestos in the smoke
25:07The tests were kept secret
25:11Sales set industry records
25:16During the past year, Kent cigarettes showed a sales increase of over 20 billion cigarettes
25:21This is the greatest gain in popularity ever recorded by any filter cigarette in any year
25:26Three years later, Laurelard introduced new Kent's with a new Micronite filter, this time asbestos free
25:41In recent years, there have been a number of cases of mesothelioma
25:50A cancer that is essentially only caused by asbestos exposure
25:58In people whose only credible exposure to asbestos was the original Kent cigarettes that they smoked in the 1950s
26:06As Kent's took off, a more sophisticated effort to selectively remove toxins
26:21was pursued by the Liggett & Myers tobacco company
26:24makers of Chesterfield's and L&M's
26:27In the early 1960s, scientists involved in a secret project codenamed XA
26:37reported that mixing tobacco with a combination of chemicals
26:41altered the chemistry of combustion
26:43reducing carcinogens in the smoke
26:46A key ingredient was palladium
26:53A metal commonly used in automobile catalytic converters
27:02By the mid-1970s, the product was ready for market
27:06But it would never get there
27:08Lawyers throughout the industry came down hard on Liggett
27:12They said a safer cigarette would imply that something was wrong with those already on the market
27:18And would lead to endless, devastating liability suits
27:24The XA project was quietly abandoned
27:27As were similar efforts by other tobacco companies
27:30Time after time, and this is the 1960s, the 1970s, the early 1980s
27:36Each time one of these scientists came up with a modification that could have reduced risk
27:42They saw their efforts either scuttled and put on a shelf
27:46And in some instances they saw themselves being let go by the companies
27:52Liggett & Myers was purchased in 1985
27:55By the maverick financier Bennett LeBeau
27:57Who added it to his roster of companies, the Vector Group
28:01Financially it's very good
28:05I mean the profit margins are very high
28:08And I hate to say it, the customers are somewhat addicted
28:12So, you know, on that basis you can look at it as financially being very attractive
28:22Interest in the abandoned XA cigarette was revived
28:25When Dr. John Bunch was hired
28:27The company's first scientist in years
28:30A long-time secretary suggested that Dr. Bunch examine records of the project
28:47He managed to retrieve a batch of prototype cigarettes in a storage freezer
28:50And brought in a senior chemist from the University of North Carolina
28:53Who had been his teacher
28:55I was asked to read the patents
28:58And I was surprised that nobody had followed up on it
29:01If it was good as the patents claimed to be
29:07Tar from the prototype cigarettes was collected on a smoking machine
29:14Carcinogenic compounds were extracted
29:16And their quantities compared to normal tobacco
29:18And we saw some evidence that was interesting
29:25Clearly something was happening
29:27Working in the old Liggett lab
29:29Dr. Berriman and a handful of energetic young scientists
29:33Analyzed the original XA formula
29:35And set out to improve it
29:36Palladium and other additives were used to alter the burn at the molecular level
29:48In a way that would trap or prevent the formation of harmful compounds
29:54In this case, the target was a deadly group of carcinogens
29:58Known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
30:01Or PAHs
30:06These carcinogens are created during combustion
30:09When reactive compounds called radicals
30:12Created by the heat
30:14Combined to form harmful PAH compounds
30:17Like the solvent benzene
30:19Naphthalene
30:21And benzoapyrine
30:24It is a very complex chemistry
30:26We recognize that if we change one reaction
30:28We do affect something else
30:30We try a catalyst that will remove the pH
30:32As you may be increasing something else
30:33That you have to worry about then again
30:36As it turned out
30:39The chemicals that reduced PAHs
30:42Produced an increase in nitrosamines
30:44The carcinogens that can form during the curing of tobacco
30:47Vector scientists went to work on a new additive to reduce these compounds
30:54It's like working on any puzzle that you don't know the answer to
30:58If you know the answer, it's no fun
31:01And it's exciting, and I think we're going to do it
31:04Vector's new cigarette, Omni, is scheduled to reach the market this year
31:11Here's a little company, Vector, or Liggett here
31:16That we've, over the years, past ten years, have had one scientist
31:19And I feel, in the past three years, we've developed some major breakthroughs in the tobacco business
31:24And you've got to sit back and ask yourself
31:26The other companies have 400 scientists, 500 scientists each
31:30What have they been doing the past 20 or 30 years?
31:33The U.S. tobacco industry is dominated by three giants
31:37Philip Morris, maker of the world's most popular cigarette, Marlboro
31:47The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
31:50And Brown & Williamson, part of the British American Tobacco Company
31:56Science and technology have played a key role in their success
32:00The cigarette was a handmade agricultural item until a rolling machine transformed it into a mass-market product late in the 19th century
32:15A modern factory can turn out more than half a billion cigarettes a day
32:20The product is a high-tech blend of Virginia, Burley, and Oriental tobacco leaves
32:33These are combined with shredded tobacco sheet
32:36A paper-like material made out of scraps and stems
32:39And there are chemical additives by the dozen
32:53These are used to alter flavor, burn, even nicotine absorption
33:01While additive-free cigarettes are often thought to be safer, the combustion of tobacco alone produces most of what's harmful
33:09Today's cigarettes deliver much less tar and nicotine than those of a few decades ago
33:20The effort to reduce tar was stimulated by the 1964 Surgeon General's report
33:26Which provided government validation of the link between illness and smoking
33:31When the industry saw that smokers were increasingly health-conscious
33:36The industry felt that it had no choice but to try to come up with some kind of modification to the product
33:43That could suggest to smokers, if the companies couldn't make it express in their ads, that the product was safer
33:51It was accepted throughout the public health community
33:55That the toxicity of cigarette smoke was related to the quantity of tar and nicotine taken into the lungs
34:00A relatively simple way to reduce the dose was to reduce the amount of tobacco in a cigarette and to speed up the burn with chemicals
34:13More porous paper and the addition of vent holes around the filter further thinned the smoke by mixing it with air
34:20And so the low-tar, or light cigarette was born
34:26And they didn't have to say it was safer
34:30They knew that smokers believed that light cigarettes were less harmful and less addictive
34:36So that brands could be compared, the Federal Trade Commission developed a standardized procedure to measure tar and nicotine
34:51Tar is a gross measurement of everything in the smoke, except nicotine and water
34:55Figures from the smoking machines spurred vigorous competition for lower numbers
35:08Between 1965 and 1980, average nicotine and tar yields were brought down from 37 to 14 milligrams of tar
35:17And from 2 to 1 milligram of nicotine
35:20Today, lights make up the majority of all cigarettes sold
35:30But once again, things haven't turned out as they were expected to
35:35People, it has been found, don't smoke like machines
35:42As tar and nicotine levels drop, smokers smoke more
35:46And the design of the cigarette makes it easier
35:50The cigarette companies, they realized that if you didn't get a certain amount of tar, it wouldn't taste good
35:56And if you didn't get enough nicotine, you'd go into nicotine withdrawal
36:00What the companies did was make the cigarettes with greater elasticity or flexibility
36:06And flexibility is a word that you see in a lot of the tobacco industry literature
36:11A flexible dosing system
36:12And if you watch a smoker that's trying to get more nicotine, they push it in a little bit more, they suck a little harder
36:19And when they get down near the end, they're holding it, they're covering up those holes
36:29The results have been disastrous for public health
36:32If you look at the history of the tobacco industry, it's a very, very bad one
36:37The industry came out with light cigarettes in the 70s
36:42And do we get a reduction in heart disease? No
36:48People only smoked more intensely and more deeply
36:51And died at the same rates of heart disease
36:54And as people sucked deeper, the cancer only went from high up here, down here
36:59And there was no change in lung cancer
37:01And lung cancer
37:03So the industry cannot be driving the train
37:07The train has to be driven by regulatory authorities who use science to establish meaningful controls over product design
37:31Today, half of Philip Morris' research and development budget is said to be focused on reduced risk products
37:38It's an effort that was already underway in the mid-1970s
37:44When secret work began on a radically different strategy to clean up cigarette smoke
37:48We found out very early from just doing experiments on heating stuff at various rates, fast, slow
38:00That tobacco actually doesn't just break down entirely and it's gone
38:06The toxic compounds are produced at different temperatures
38:12Some of the worst, like PAHs and carbon monoxide, occur at the highest
38:25Cliff Lilly's team at Philip Morris developed a variety of experimental devices to control the heat used to vaporize tobacco
38:32And we tried lots of things that some sound silly at this time in my life
38:37Flash bulbs
38:39A flash bulb cigarette, I once really liked
38:43When we put a flash bulb in the front of the cigarette, hit a switch, the flash would go off
38:49And you would get a very nice puff coming from heated tobacco
38:53There were a number of that type of thing
38:57Coils of wire that we had hooked to a battery
39:02And you heated tobacco with a coil of wire
39:04You walked a very narrow path
39:09If you put too much heat in, the tobacco caught on fire
39:13And then you had a very sophisticated regular cigarette
39:16Might as well lit it with a match or a lighter
39:19If you put too little heat in
39:22It was like a, you know, toast coming out of your toaster
39:26You really got no smoke and it smelled toasted
39:28And so it was very, very difficult to control the amount of heat
39:34But efforts to create an electrically heated cigarette were cut back
39:39Due to technological limitations
39:41Or possibly the threat of litigation
39:42In the meantime, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company had gone to work on its own heated product
39:58The maker of Camels and Winstons hoped the company could reverse its declining fortunes
40:08With a revolutionary new reduced hazard product that barely used tobacco at all
40:12One experiment that was done early on was just to determine how we could deliver smoke that was completely non-toxic
40:24So we devised some cigarettes that were made of glass for demonstration purposes
40:29They had glycerin coated on the inside of the glass
40:32Glycerin is simply a compound that will evaporate or vaporize when heated
40:37And then condense very readily to form a smoke to form particles suspended in a gas
40:44So then the challenge was to take that basic system and then make that acceptable to smokers
40:51By developing some type of tobacco flavor, tobacco taste
40:56And as well as provide some nicotine to the smoker
41:01The new product, called Premier, would use a unique technology to deliver the nicotine
41:09But it was designed to look like a traditional cigarette
41:14Premier was an interesting device
41:19It looks like a cigarette
41:22But at the end you see this white ring that's fiberglass
41:26And the black dot is a fuel element
41:31And if I take out the fuel element with these tweezers
41:36It's attached to this aluminum cylinder
41:41The aluminum cylinder, in turn, contains little beads of alumina
41:47That have nicotine and glycerin on them
41:53And these beads are heated by the fuel element when it's lit
42:00And nicotine and glycerin vaporizes off of these beads
42:05And then is condensed into an aerosol that can deliver nicotine deep into the lungs
42:11Because the development of Premier was so different
42:14We did have to develop new flavor systems
42:19We worked with all the major flavor houses in the world
42:24It turns out that was an exceedingly difficult project
42:28To design those types of flavor systems
42:31One problem was that until the flavor capsule heated up
42:35The only taste was sulfur from the match and burning charcoal
42:38The effort to fix Premier's taste was documented in a best selling book and television movie
42:46Now 8% of that group sampled at least one Premier to give us their opinion of the product
42:53Bottom line
42:57Well of all the groups we tested, the response to Premier was just about uniform
43:01Mm-hmm
43:06They all said they tasted like
43:09Like
43:12Like
43:14Was the consensus, yes sir
43:18Premier was introduced in the autumn of 1988
43:21And came with instructions to use a butane lighter
43:24The effort had been the most ambitious yet
43:29To create a reduced risk product
43:31Reynolds expected applause
43:33But that's not what happened
43:36The American Medical Association says
43:39These are not cigarettes
43:41But a sophisticated drug delivery system
43:43Which gives smokers strong hits of nicotine
43:46A drug the AMA says is so addictive
43:49It wants smokeless cigarettes banned
43:51Consumers were equally unenthusiastic with what was dubbed
43:56A smokeless cigarette
43:58Nothing
43:59Zero
44:01It's like smoking blackboard chalk
44:03Another first for American technology
44:06No wonder the Japanese are trembling
44:08R.J. Reynolds has announced it's bailing out of its smokeless cigarette project
44:13But then those smokers who tried Premier apparently didn't like it anyway
44:16After only a few months Reynolds withdrew Premier
44:23But the story wasn't over
44:26In the meanwhile what had emerged was the secondhand smoke issue
44:32There was across the country a wave of local ordinances
44:37You can't smoke in public buildings, you can't smoke in public places, you can't smoke here and there
44:42And they were sitting there with this product
44:45It occurred to them that if this product didn't produce a lot of smoke as well
44:51You would solve this other problem
44:55It took six years and a total cost of nearly a billion dollars
44:59But Premier was reborn as Eclipse
45:01The new design did away with the aluminum flavor capsule
45:14Instead the burning charcoal tip would heat a column of sheet tobacco laced with glycerin
45:20Eclipse was presented as a smoking alternative that may present less risk for certain diseases including cancer
45:31The public health community was cautious
45:36Does this technology have the potential to reduce toxicity?
45:41The answer is yes it has the potential
45:44Does this particular product reduce the toxicity?
45:48The answer is I don't know
45:50Because the only information I have
45:53Is information that is bought and paid for by R.J. Reynolds
45:57An independent study commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health
46:03Showed that when Eclipse was compared to two ultra-low tar cigarettes
46:07Eclipse had higher yields of several toxins
46:12Especially when the charcoal tip burned hot from heavy smoking
46:22Reynolds' saga was closely followed by the competition
46:24In the late 1980's Philip Morris revived its efforts to electrically control the burn of a cigarette
46:3250 staffers were moved to an industrial park
46:38And given the charge to bring a product to market
46:41We decided that what we should do is replace the burning end of a cigarette with a battery, a heater and electronics
46:49What I have here is the first attempt
46:54The consumer draws on the cigarette just as you would a normal cigarette
47:00My mission was to make a design that really worked and that could be consumer friendly
47:06And just take it to the step where you can commercialize that concept
47:09The heater's electronics would have the power of an Apple II computer
47:16Capable of sensing a puff and instantly heating a metal blade to a precise temperature for a specified duration
47:24Producing little secondhand smoke or ashes
47:27A cigarette of unique design was required for the heater
47:32Beneath the paper, a heavy cylinder of sheet tobacco would be singed by the heater blades
47:41Keep track of their battery status and their cigarette status
47:45The device would dramatically change the smoking ritual
47:48So various types were auditioned
47:51In the end, the size of the batteries and electronics precluded many of the designs
47:55You'd be able to put this into your pocket
48:01This one is our current product that we are selling in the Richmond market
48:05In Osaka, Japan
48:07Gives you your battery capacity
48:09It provides you a cigarette icon that monitors your cigarette
48:14And fits pretty nicely in your palm
48:17We would ideally like to reduce this and make it a smaller product
48:22The smoker would insert their cigarette, fully depress it
48:27And the lighter actually senses that we have a cigarette and turns on
48:31So now the consumer is ready to smoke
48:34The consumer places the cigarette on their lips, draws on it
48:39And voila, smoke is produced
48:45The new smoking system called Accord
48:49Is now available in test markets
48:52And although sales have been modest
48:54Philip Morris continues its development
48:57I don't think Accord is a finished product
49:02I think Accord is a marker for the public and for the regulators and for Congress to see that Philip Morris is in the game too
49:11And Accord is simply too awkward and too improbable in my mind to take off as a credible product
49:29Determining whether Accord or any of the other new products actually are safer is a highly complex process
49:35The Institute of Medicine recently spent a year studying just how such determinations might be made
49:50In its report, the Institute proposed that to assess comparative risk, these products be tested by an independent agency
49:55Much as any new drug would be, on cells, on animals and humans, a process requiring at least two years
50:05The tobacco industry historically opposed federal regulation of its products
50:13In 1999, Philip Morris made a dramatic change of course
50:22For the first time, the company publicly acknowledged the health risks of smoking
50:28The addictive nature of nicotine
50:31And not long after, called for oversight of reduced risk products by the Food and Drug Administration
50:37Such authority would require Congressional legislation
50:40We need to reach out to the public health community, the federal government
50:47And create a dialogue where we can reach a common ground to define reduced risk products
50:55And just as importantly, how does one go about communicating about such a product?
51:01As a responsible company, we think it's appropriate through regulation
51:05To allow those adult smokers who continue to choose to smoke
51:10To have the alternative of a lower risk product if one's available
51:14Tobacco control advocates were surprised by Philip Morris' new direction
51:20And were wary
51:22What the industry would love
51:26Is to have business as usual for the conventional cigarettes
51:29Have the kids start smoking Camels or Marlboros
51:34Do the same aggressive advertising that shows it as being macho, fun, socially acceptable
51:39And then when the person turns 30 or 40 or 50 and starts coughing up
51:43You know, give them a clips or a cord
51:46So they don't go to the court and sue them
51:49Or they can tell a group of jurors, we gave the consumer a choice
51:52Before reduced risk products appeared on the horizon, the strategy of the health community was straightforward
52:03To discourage smoking across the board
52:06Now the situation is far more complex
52:10I am not a knee-jerk opponent of safer cigarettes if the science could demonstrate in fact that harm had been reduced
52:12But it's very tricky
52:23If there is a genuinely safer cigarette, would it create a disincentive for existing tobacco users to quit?
52:32That's unintended consequence number one
52:35And number two, would it create a new incentive for a non-smoker or someone who had already quit?
52:42To want to smoke again, thinking that they don't have to worry about any of the health consequences of tobacco use
52:48Abstinence will remain the only safe response to cigarettes
52:55But if tobacco companies are to market so-called reduced risk products, should their claims be verified?
53:02For the last 50 years, the tobacco companies have used the trappings of public health
53:10And public relations to maintain sales, to increase sales through filters, through low-tar
53:19Now they are trying it through what they call reduced risk
53:22And they have never been accountable to a regulatory agency as other consumer products are held accountable
53:30And it's time to decide if tobacco products are going to continue being outside the regulatory system
53:39Not accountable to anybody for what they do and how they make their products
53:43What goes into this deceptively simple product?
53:57On NOVA's website, take a closer look at the carefully engineered elements of a conventional cigarette
54:15Then compare them to two safer cigarettes at pbs.org or America Online keyword, PBS
54:23To order this show or any other NOVA program for $19.95 plus shipping and handling
54:33Call WGBH Boston Video at 1-800-255-9424
54:45Next time on NOVA
54:56You can do anything you want with these human embryos
54:59Welcome to the reproductive revolution
55:02We were able to reconstruct an egg, but then we got into trouble
55:06Have we gone too far? 18 ways to make a baby
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