IMPERIAL TOBACCO DENIES CHARGES OF DESIGNING ITS CIGARETTES TO``FOOL'' SMOKERS AND SMOKE COMPONENT MACHINE MEASUREMENTS

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

IMPERIAL TOBACCO DENIES CHARGES OF DESIGNING ITS CIGARETTES TO ``FOOL''
SMOKERS AND SMOKE COMPONENT MACHINE MEASUREMENTS
Source: Canada Newswire, Thursday, 11/11/99

    MONTREAL, Nov. 11 /CNW/ - Following today's press conference by
Physicians For A Smoke-Free Canada, during which charges were made that
Imperial Tobacco had purposely designed its cigarettes so that machine
measurements of smoke components printed on packs, according to Canadian
legislation, would be systematically lower than the actual deliveries to
smokers, Imperial Tobacco issued the following statement:

    ``We reject the allegations made today by Physicians For A Smoke-Free
Canada that Imperial Tobacco designed its products in such a way that it
would deliberately mislead both smokers and governments as to the actual
deliveries of its products.

    ``Unfortunately, Physicians For A Smoke-Free Canada is once again
gathering a large number of documents, extracting from them a series of
quotations that are out of context, and treating a most complex technical
matter in a flippant way to make up a story that, in the end, misleads the
Canadian public.

    ``We note with satisfaction that Physicians For A Smoke-Free Canada
today admit in their press release that previous accusations repeatedly
leveled at the industry by anti-tobacco activists concerning the
``spiking'' of cigarettes with nicotine, and the use of ammonia, were
indeed baseless, as we had pointed out all along.



    THE ``ELASTIC'' CIGARETTE

    ``Today's major accusation is to the fact that Imperial Tobacco
designed its products according to the concept of the ``elastic''
cigarette, that is a cigarette that would deliver more of the smoke
components than is shown on packages.

    ``The reality is that Imperial Tobacco has never been guided by this
concept in the design of its new products, or in modifications to products
currently on the market. Physicians For A Smoke-Free Canada creates the
impression that this new concept is the fundamental guiding principle used
by Imperial in the design of its products. It is not and has never been.



    ``LIGHTER'' PRODUCTS

    ``In the development of our products, we are guided by one major
principle: to offer products that meet our clients' expectations better
than those of our competitors. When Canadian smokers expressed a desire
for

``lighter'' products in the mid 70's, and were strongly encouraged by the
federal government to smoke ``lighter'' products rather than ``stronger''

ones, Imperial responded by developing and marketing those ``lighter''

products.

    ``Imperial never made any health claims about these ``lighter''
products.

Imperial never developed any product for the purpose of encouraging
smokers to smoke more than they would have otherwise, or to keep smoking
rather than quit.



    GOVERNMENT IMPOSED SMOKE COMPONENT MEASUREMENTS

    ``Smoke component measurements that appear on packages are mandated by
the federal government. The government decides which smoke components are
to be listed, how they are to be measured, and how often they are to be
reported

(currently quarterly). These have varied over time (we are currently using
the third set of rules in as many decades established by the government),
and we have never heard any complaint from government officials that our
measurements were faulty in any way in all those years. Any allegation
that Imperial has not scrupulously respected these protocols would
obviously be without merit.

    ``One last comment deserves to be made on this issue. Smoke component
measurements on cigarette packages have not been adopted by governments on
the basis that they would reflect the actual smoking behaviour of smokers.
These are different from one smoker to another (some inhale less than
others, some take smaller puffs than others, etc.), and indeed the smoking
behaviour of a particular smoker can vary from one cigarette to another.
Instead, these machine-based measurements were designed to give consumers
a ballpark indication of the results when a product is smoked in a
perfectly identical manner by a machine. Just like the ``gas mileage''
indications given by car manufacturers may or may not be reflect the
actual gas consumption of a given car depending upon the driving behaviour
of the buyer, the smoke component measurements may or may not reflect the
actual consumption of these components depending upon the behaviour of
each individual smoker. There is nothing new or mysterious about this.''







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For further information: Michel Descôteaux, Director, Public Affairs,
(514) 932 6161, extension 2361, home: (514) 768 4216