IF YOU CAN'T QUIT, TRY A SAFER CIGARETTE

TO SLASH the death toll from tobacco, governments should make cigarettes safer rather than attempt to eradicate smoking in one step, a group of experts concluded this week.  The committee, assembled by the Royal College of Physicians, said new regulation is needed to ensure cigarettes satisfy addicts' nicotine cravings without greatly increasing their risk of cancer or heart disease.  "it may be necessary to accept, albeit reluctantly, the intractability of widespread nicotine addiction in the short to medium term," their report concludes.

"A government agency should make sure nicotine delivery systems are as safe as any other drug delivery system," says the committee chairman, John Britton of Nottingham University.  Governments might insist on filters and tobacco treatment processes that reduce levels of toxins like tar in cigarette smoke ( New Scientist, 8 May 1999, p 18 ).  Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health, agrees that this approach would save lives.  "Current nicotine delivery devices are far too dangerous," he says.