Philip Morris Offers Low-Smoke Cigarette

Philip Morris USA, the biggest U.S. cigarette manufacturer, announced Thursday that it was launching a cigarette that it said emits 70% less smoke from the lit end than most comparable brands.

The cigarette, called Superslims from Virginia Slims, also is low in tar and slimmer in shape than most other 100-millimeter cigarettes, the company said. It intends to market the new brand to women.

Philip Morris, maker of the Marlboro, Benson & Hedges and Merit brands, already is the leader in the estimated $40-billion U.S. cigarette market with an estimated 41% market share. But overall cigarette sales have been declining at about a 2.5% rate for several years.

Industry analysts said the new cigarette continues that market’s trend of offering products that appeal to narrowly defined groups--in this case women and people concerned about offending nonsmokers with their cigarettes.

‘Sidestream’ Smoke

“This is a business based on segmentation,” said Emanuel Goldman, who follows the tobacco business for the investment firm Paine Webber Inc.

Cutting down on so-called sidestream smoke has become a more important concern to cigarette makers who face an increasingly hostile regulatory environment.

Superslims emit less smoke from the lit end than most other brands because of a double wrapping of porous and non-porous papers, Philip Morris said. The wrapping does not affect the amount of smoke which the smoker inhales, however.

R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. since early this year has been testing Vantage Excel 100s, which it says emits less smoke from the lit end than other 100-millimeter cigarettes.

A number of cigarette brands, including Virginia Slims Ultra Lights, match or have lower levels of tar than the 6 milligrams in Superslims.