Newsweek - The Next Frontiers
June 24, 2002

CIGARETTE FILTER

It's easy to quit smoking, said Mark Twain - he'd done it hundreds of times. He'd have loved the new cigarettes scheduled to hit the market in 2004. Think of them as ultra-ultra-lights for people who can't quit: smokes with filters made partially of antioxidants that neutralize cancer-causing free radicals, drastically reducing toxicity while leaving the draw and taste intact. The price will be about the same as that of regular cigarettes, too, since the process for making the safer smokes is identical. "I'm not a smoker myself - none of us are really pro-smoking," says Dan McNamara, CEO of Thione International, which developed the antioxidant complex. "And no one is pretending we can create a completely safe cigarette. But a lot of people just aren't going to quit." They aren't going to quit buying their favorite brands, either, which is why some tobacco companies are planning to put the filters in their own products. (Look for an announcement from a major firm in the fall.) Meanwhile, Thione hopes to put its antioxidants in the tobacco itself, bringing the benefits to pipe smokers - and secondhand smokers, too.

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