Smokeless cigarettes questioned

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 8

Smokeless cigarettes questioned

Smokers would be unwise to put their faith in new smokeless cigarettes, says Dr David Hay, of the National Heart Foundation. “They may be cleaner but there is no such thing as a safe cigarette,” said Dr hay of the product, which was recently marketed in New York. “Years of careful observation would be required to determine whether they carried any health risks,” he said. Dr Hay believes the most important aspect of the promotion is that for the first time a leading tobacco company has appeared to acknowledge that cigarettes are linked with cancer and other

health problems. “Perhaps they have got a social conscience after all,” he said. Dr Hay said he was in favour of the recent price increase of New Zealand cigarettes, as this was one of the best ways to stop people smoking. He was concerned, however, that cigarettes were included in the package goods and services on which the consumers’ price index is based and which utimately affects the lever of inflation. “I have always been puzzled that a product used only by 30 per cent of New Zealand adults should be part of the C.P.1.,” he said.